Birthright
by sadfascist
Summary: Naruto is the slave of the warlord Uchiha Itachi. Sasuke is a slum whore with a secret past. Together their forbidden love will change the world… Prequel to the manga. NaruSasu, ItaNaru, violence, abuse, dark themes.
1. Clinging to Life

Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO or the characters in it.**  
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**BIRTHRIGHT**

**CHAPTER ONE: "Clinging to Life"**

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><p><span>FIVE HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE THE FOUNDING OF KONOHA:<span>

_The child cries._

_ Everything is dark. He can't breathe. Something is crushing him, a corpse. The corpse used to be his mother. He tries to push it away, but it's so heavy. _

"_There's someone here," a voice says. A man who speaks with the sound of iron. _

_All at once there is light. _

_The child blinks in confusion. The man picks him up out of the pile of corpses, cradles him. "Shhh," whispers the man. The child stops crying. _

_Other voices gather round them. _

"_A little kid," says one. "The plague didn't kill him."_

"_No. Still clinging to life," says the man._

_ "What shall you do, Lord Itachi?"_

_ The man stares into the child's face. He smiles. "Keep him… as my slave…" _

* * *

><p>"Master," Naruto whispered as he woke from his dream.<p>

His master heard him. Naruto lay naked against his master's chest from where he had fallen asleep the night before. Now the master brought his hand across to stroke his slaveboy's cheek. Naruto shivered with the touch. His master's hand continued down the boy's face, over his neck and the small of his back and the curve of his ass. The boy gasped, fully awake now. He opened his eyes, craned up his head to look into the master's own.

"Master Itachi," the boy said. "I dreamed of you."

The man pressed the boy to him. Naruto lunged into the embrace, his slender, lithe body sliding against his master's chiseled frame. They kissed, lips tight over each other, wet tongues twisting, reaching. The slaveboy felt his master's penis stiff and hot against his thigh. His arms clutched at the man's back. "Master, please," the boy gasped.

The master reached his hand between the slave's legs and grabbed the boy's tiny, hard dick. Naruto cried out in ecstasy and he almost came. The man wrenched the boy's penis down with his hand, forcing the boy flat on his stomach against the bed. Naruto spread his legs obediently. Suddenly the master rammed into him, deep, taking him.

The slaveboy screamed with pleasure. "Master!" he cried out.

His master grunted. He pressed the boy down with his full weight, holding the slave's wrists tight against the bed. Then the man began to thrust. The length of his master's erect manhood filled the boy's insides. Naruto cried out, his back arching desperately, twisting his hips in rhythm with the violent movement. His own tiny dick ground against the bed. Naruto cried out again and again. At last the master came, filling Naruto with his hot seed. The boy ejaculated right after. A final scream, then silence and sweat and heavy breaths. He could feel a trickle of semen leaking out of his asshole onto the silk bedsheets, mixing with the blood.

"Master," Naruto gasped.

"Good boy," said Uchiha Itachi.

The man slid out of his slave and went to the window. Naruto closed his eyes, panting, savoring the feeling of his master on top of him and in him. Maybe that night his master would take him again, or let the boy suck him off with his mouth. But now it was day, and there was no time for such male pleasures. _Master has taken off the face of a man_, the boy thought, _and put on the mask of Warlord Itachi, tyrant of the Blood Country._

"Naruto, come here," Itachi said.

The boy went to him. "Yes, Master?"

Itachi stared out the open window, his long silver hair blowing in the sea breeze. "What do you see?"

The boy followed his gaze. Below them stretched the great terraced roofs and pagodas of Sawara, capital of the Blood Country. An immense river cut through the heart of it, rushing into the sea, dotted nearly to the horizon with masted ships. "I see your land, Master, and your people. The greatest country in the world. Your enemies fall before you, they flee at the sound of your name. Soon they shall all be yours."

"You flatter well, but insincerely," his master said. "_He_ _is coming_. Senju Orochimaru the Butcher returns at last."

"Rumors, drunken sailor-talk, piss from the mouth of traitors. Even if by some chance the tales were true, even if this self-styled Sage of Six Paths were to invade us with a fleet of warships, he must still cross the Endless Sea. The storms would scatter him to the four corners of the earth. Probably his ship is already sunk, and as we speak crabs are nibbling out his so-called magic eyes at the bottom of the sea."

"My spies claim he is a sorcerer, that he can harness the wind and waves."

"Rumors."

The master was silent for a time. Then he said, "It had been thirteen years since I last saw him. That day I shall never forget. Senju Orochimaru murdered my family in a blaze of fire and fled across the sea to escape justice. He near killed me as well, but instead left me with this."

Itachi touched a hand to his forehead. The skin of his upper face was burned off, charred and blackened. The scar was terrible to look at, but Naruto was used to it. _I wake up to it every morning, at least. It smells like a corpse and tastes like burnt worms, is that so bad? _

Below the scarred skin, his master's green eyes were dark and intense. "Now the Butcher returns. I feel the truth of it in my bones. But I am ready for him. And when Orochimaru arrives at Sawara… I will burn him alive, as he did to my father and mother and sister and little brother. This time he won't escape."

Itachi's voice had a dangerous edge to it, a barely concealed rage. The slaveboy knew it would be bad to say the wrong thing. "I live to serve you, Master. Let me fight at your side."

The man cupped a hand around the boy's cheek. "You shall, Naruto."

His gaze lingered over Naruto's naked body, the boy's lithe form and smooth face, his soft red lips and mop of golden hair, his wide blue glittering eyes like the sea. He was very beautiful, Naruto knew. That was why he was his master's favorite. _I'm the only one who pleases him. I am by his side always._ But Master took his hand back and turned away to look out the window.

"I have a mission for you," his master said. "I was informed this morning. General Nara Kakashi is dead, murdered last night in bed by the Kitsune."

The boy's eyes widened. "The Kitsune? But… General Kakashi-dono lives in Sawara. Not far from the palace itself."

"Indeed. So it seems the Kitsune has snuck into the city, despite all our precautions. This upstart little assassin… already he has killed a string of my most important officers. Orochimaru is behind it all, without doubt. He sent this _ninja_ to sabotage us before the invasion proper. Now the Kitsune is in Sawara. I cannot have him spreading chaos in my own capital city. Naruto, your mission is to find this Kitsune, this Demon Fox. And then kill him."

Naruto considered that. "We know nothing of the Kitsune's true name or face. If he wished to hide, I'd have better luck fishing a needle out of the Endless Sea than finding him. But he won't hide. He'll attack again. As soon as tonight, maybe."

"You mean to intercept him. Where do you believe he will strike?"

"The Kitsune is like a kept beast who lives on rice. But once he's tasted real meat, he can't get enough of it, and every time he needs more than before. The Kitsune always attacks a bigger target than his last. General Kakashi-dono was the commander of the Army of the North. That leaves only a few people above him. You, Master. Minister Sawar-dono. Or, more likely, Lord Hiashi-dono, Admiral of the Scarlet Fleet. For the Kitsune, the Admiral must be like the best meal he's never had. An irresistible target. It will be his undoing."

"Very well, Naruto." His master bent down to his slave for one last kiss. The man was a good foot taller, so the boy had to crane his head up to meet his lips. The kiss was warm and quick. "You best not fail. Or I will be very displeased."

"I won't, Master," Naruto said.

"Good boy," said Uchiha Itachi.

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><p>Next: <strong>CHAPTER TWO: "The Fox Hunt"<strong>

**Author's Note:** I added a few reviews along with my responses. Hopefully this will be helpful to new readers:

1. _**No6:**__ "I don't understand how there could be a prequel to the manga...(as your summary states). It's AU. You should rework the summary."_

This story is NOT an AU. It is set in the canon universe 500 years before the events of the manga. If things seem different, that's because a lot can happen in 500 years.

2. _**Jen**__: "I'm still a little confused on how we're meant to see these characters in relation to the canon characters. AUs take the characters as we know them but drop them in another setting, so their looks and personalities stay the same. However, this is canon universe, not AU, and these characters look and act differently from the ones we know. Does that mean these are totally original characters and NOT the same people from the manga?" _

You got it. The characters in "Birthright" are NOT the same people as in the canon manga. HOWEVER, there is a specific connection between the two sets of characters. I can't say too much about that at this time, but remember that "Birthright" really is a prequel. It sets up the history and the context which is driving the manga right now. Where did ninjas come from? Jutsu? Bloodlines? Who is the Sage of Six Paths? This is the origin story that will answer all those questions. In a word, "Birthright" is the starting point of the NARUTO universe. That will become much more clear as the story goes on.

_3. **LilyEverlasting:** "It was definitely a beginning that left me interested enough to hope for another chapter! I find Naruto's acceptance of Itachi a little disturbing...as if he thinks it's pleasurable because that's the way he's been wired. The whole slave mentality thing. I, too, am confused by how old he's supposed to be. I agree, that by the you describe his body, it's hard to think of him as more than thirteen or fourteen, or around there."_

Naruto is 15 and Itachi is 30. I would hope you think their sex is disturbing! Naruto is being raped, more or less, and doesn't even realize it. But, don't worry, Naruto will free himself from his master and find true love soon :)


	2. The Fox Hunt

Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO or the characters in it.

**BIRTHRIGHT**

**CHAPTER TWO: "The Fox Hunt"**

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><p>The dead General's bedsheets were dark red, stained with blood.<p>

_The sheets have more blood in them than the people_, Naruto thought, looking at the pale, ashen faces around him. Half of them seemed more dead than alive, though whether out of grief or fear the boy couldn't say. _Maybe both._ Their lives had been bound to Nara Kakashi's life, and Kakashi was dead, assassinated by the Kitsune. _If they are blamed, my master will have their heads. _

They knew it, too. And did not like it when Naruto showed up to remind them.

"What are you doing here, slave?" one of the samurai growled.

"Samurai-dono," Naruto said, bowing low. "I am here on behalf of my master, the Warlord Itachi. The Warlord is most disturbed by news of this tragic murder. He does not understand how it happened. May I ask who was guarding the General last night?"

"You—you—it was not—" the samurai sputtered. He had been one of Kakashi's bodyguards, of course.

A woman giggled by the window. Decked in jewels and blushing like a maid, she was the only one in the room who did not look a ghost. No one would ever guess she was the dead General's wife. "Itachi-sama has indulged you too much, little slave. You act more a lordling than a slaveboy."

_And you act more a newlywed than a new-made widow. If you weren't such an old hag, I'd suspect you of doing the deed yourself._ Naruto bit his tongue, with difficulty. "I apologize if my words are too rash, Lady Rin-dono. I live only to serve my master… and he is most displeased."

Rin laughed and fanned herself with some sort of thing made of peacock feathers. "Is he now? Well, boy, it's simple. My late husband sleeps alone. He's such a dreadful snorer, no one dares be in the same room with him come sundown. Around midnight there was a scream from his bedchamber. I didn't think much of it. He often screams at night, the poor thing. So I rolled over and went back to sleep. Later they woke me up again and told me the Demon Fox had driven a dagger through his heart." Rin giggled again.

"My master grieves for your loss," Naruto said.

An old, wrinkled samurai coughed. "Yes, well… in any case, there were bodyguards posted at all the entrances and approaches into the mansion. The Kitsune killed two of the rooftop guards and then climbed in through the window of the bedchamber. He must have had inside knowledge, otherwise he could not have so easily located General-sama."

Rin laughed. "Perhaps he followed the sound of my husband's snores."

"Eh, um… perhaps, Lady Rin-sama. As I was saying, General-sama heard the Kitsune at the last second and cried out, but it was too late. As we rushed into the room the Demon Fox was already fleeing. We gave chase across the city, but he escaped."

"How?" Naruto asked.

"The Kitsune, he… he can use magic. I would not have believed it if I did not see it with mine own eyes."

Naruto frowned. _Can the tales be true? Ninja from across the sea, masked fighters who make fire and wind with their hands?_ "Have you proof?"

"We had him cornered in one of the squares along Market Street. Or so we thought. The Kitsune was _there_… ten of us will testify to it. I was close enough to see his green eyes, his silver hair. But when we attacked, he broke apart into a puff of smoke. One moment he was a man… the next he was smoke. And then he was gone."

"A trick of the light," Naruto said.

"It was no trick, slaveboy."

"So you say. Men are made of flesh and blood, not magic smoke. If you speak the truth, then the Demon Fox cannot be caught. So let us hope, samurai-dono, that you do not."

Naruto turned to go, but the old samurai called after him. "Please, slaveboy… you have influence with the Warlord. You know it was not our fault. I beg you… tell him. We will be in your debt."

_You mean you'll owe me your heads._ Naruto bowed, and his face was cold as ice. "Groveling does not become you, samurai-dono. I'll do what I can."

The boy left the General's mansion in a foul mood. Outside, the streets of Sawara were jammed full with people. Naruto soon tired of pushing his way past them, and of their prying glances as well. It wasn't everyday they saw a slave who dressed in silk robes, nor one who carried a sword. Slaves could not wield weapons, as a rule, but rules did not apply to the Warlord. _Master gave me this katana himself. I am his right arm, I am by his side always. I will not fail him._

Instead of staying in the streets, Naruto took to the rooftops. The wooden houses of Sawara were built very close, and their sloping tiled roofs hung down over the walls until they touched in the street. It was easy to jump from one roof to another, his sandaled feet soft and quick on the brick tiles. From this height the boy could see all the way to the harbor, choked with red-sailed warships, and to Sawara Bridge at the river's mouth where traders hawked their wares, and even to the ruins of Uchiha Castle in the east, half-hidden by the mansions and temples of the High District. The roofs of Sawara were a world all their own, one rarely seen by men, of lost secrets and hidden passages. Naruto knew them all. _The Kitsune must have come this way as well, to get away._

Suddenly the boy thought of a fox hunt he had gone on with his master, years ago, in the forests of the Ash Valleys far to the east. They had won the war a week before, in a great battle so bloody the ground turned red. After that there was nothing left to do but hunt. They loosed the bloodhounds and rode out into the forest together. It had been Naruto that had found the den of red-furred foxes, it had been him that notched his bow and made the first kill. The foxes ran, shrieking and yelping, but not fast enough. The old fell first, the young and strong the last, and by sundown they were all as dead as the rest of the Warlord's enemies.

That night, when they returned to the Warlord's tent, they made love in the usual way, kissing and touching and sucking. But as Naruto went to pleasure his master's penis, the man stopped him. "It is not your mouth I want, boy," he had said, "it is your maidenhood. You are old enough. It is time." The man parted the boy's legs, slid a hand up his thigh, into the crack of the boy's ass. Naruto felt a long, thick finger push inside him, and then more fingers, so tight the boy felt as if they were ripping apart his gut. He cried out in pain. "Are you ready?" his master asked. "Yes," the boy gasped. "Yes, _yes_. I live only for you. Let your will be done." The master pressed his slaveboy down on his stomach. For a moment that seemed to stretch on forever the boy waited, his tiny body quivering with fear, with thrill and desire. And then his master entered him. Naruto screamed. He screamed and screamed and screamed, and somewhere along the way the screams became something else, cries of sheer ecstasy that shook the world. He did not know it was over until he somehow found himself in Master Itachi's arms. Then the boy looked down and stared at his master's manhood, covered in seed and blood. _My blood_, the boy knew, _my virgin blood_. His master had taken it all.

Naruto grew hard with the memory. He had been nine years old then, half a boy still, and unbearably naïve. Everything had seemed so simple, so clean: the war, the night in the tent, the fox hunt. Not like now. _Were I hunting real foxes now, instead of demon ones. Foxes do not murder generals, nor do they turn into smoke._

That was when Naruto heard the sound.

At first he thought it was the wind. But the wind whispered, it formed into words he could not quite make out, and he realized the wind was a human voice. The voice was singing.

The song was coming from somewhere near him. Naruto ran from rooftop to rooftop, and on the height of the great temple which adjoined the residence of Lord Hyuuga Hiashi, he peered around a corner, and he saw the other boy.

The boy was sitting on the corner of a golden roof, leaning back against a stone sculpture of some many-armed god. His eyes were closed and it almost seemed like he was sleeping, except that his mouth moved, and music came out. Now Naruto could hear the words. It was a ballad, strange, haunting:

_As ye came from the holy land  
>Of Shinjukame,<br>Met you not with my true love  
>By the way as you came?<em>

_How should I know your true love  
>That have met many anon<br>As I came from the holy land,  
>That have come, that have gone?<em>

_Know my true love hath my heart  
>And I have his own,<br>But what conscience has love,  
>Which is too young to know?<em>

The boy's voice was raw, unpolished. Some of the notes were too low, others too high. Yet at the same time his voice had a sort of innocence about it, an unawareness of its own strength, which made it seem impossible to change anything without soiling it. It was beautiful, and, in some strange way, perfect.

Just then the boy turned and looked straight at Naruto.

And Naruto saw the brand pressed into the boy's forehead, a black twisted cross, the symbol of the Blood Country. A slaveseal. The brand given to every slave, to mark them as what they were. _He's a slave, like me._

_No. Not like me._ Naruto's master was the Warlord himself, while this slave… the boy's clothes were rags, his face was caked with dust. His wild, scruffy hair was black as coal and likely as clean, and his body was so thin the bones had started to show. But pretty enough, Naruto had to admit, with large gleaming eyes like a cat's, green as jade. _A slave whore, most like. _The city Pleasure District was crawling with them.

"Watcha' looking at?" the boy asked. "Ain't anyone tell you peepin' is no manners? Unless you pay for it. And I bloody reckon you can't afford me tonight."

Naruto was a little taken aback. "Are you trying to proposition me?"

The boy laughed. "Ya mean, do I see the slaveseal on ya' forehead? Well, I ain't blind, it's bigger than your nose. And I see your silk robes, and your shiny sword, too. Which means your master is so bloody rich even his slaves got coin enough to spend on someone to warm their bed, or am I wrong? But you're outta luck, I ain't a whore today. It's my day off. I was singing, that's all, when ya started your peepin' at me."

Naruto did not like the way the boy talked. _This whore dares far too much._ "You mistake me. I heard a noise, horrible and frightening, and feared some crime was taking place. At once I rushed to the rescue, only to find it was you sitting here, and the noise was coming from your mouth. My apologies."

The boy laughed again, light and ringing. He jumped to his feet and walked toward Naruto. "That so? So ya didn't like my song?"

_I did, but I'm not bloody well going to tell you that._ "A word of advice. Stick to your day job."

"Haha. You're funny. And pretty, too. Ya'd be more pretty if ya smiled, once in a bit, instead of looking like you swallowed a bug or somethin'."

The boy was close enough now that Naruto could smell his breath. To his surprise, the whore was not as dirty as he seemed. His skin was white and smooth, his hair carefully washed. _A whore with no lice. Imagine that. _The two boys were almost the same height, the same age. _Why is he so close? _Naruto wanted to move away, but he didn't.

Instead he found himself asking, "Who are you?"

The boy grinned. "Who'm I? A sometime whore, a sometime singer, a sometime other things. And as for masters, I got plenty of 'em, too. Master Zabuza's the one you want."

"Is that your pimp?"

"He prefers ta' be styled the proprietor of the House of Brotherly Love. The finest erotic establishment this side of Sawara." The boy's jade eyes flashed, and when he smiled dimples formed at the corner of his mouth. "My name's Sasuke, by the way. What's yours? Do you even have a name?"

_Who doesn't have a name?_ "If a whore can have one, why can't I?"

"Most slaves don't, ya'know. They have names their masters give them… but not true names. Not their own names. Sasuke is my name."

_Which means you made it up yourself, I expect._ "My name is Naruto, and my master is the Warlord Uchiha Itachi. You would do well to remember it."

"Oh! The Warlord. So you're _his_ slave." Sasuke giggled, his eyes wide. "Please tell him I said hello."

Naruto was dumbfounded. "That I shall not. You edge toward blasphemy, whore. Think before you speak, or you'll soon lose your tongue."_ Master's name means nothing to him, he dares to make a jape of it. I've wasted enough time here. I should be hunting the Kitsune._ He turned to go.

He was halfway across the temple roof when Sasuke called out after him. "I'll see you again, Naruto."

Naruto could not help but retort. "Really? I wonder at the occasion. Will you be invited to dinner at the imperial palace, or will I be joining you in the whorehouse of brotherly love?"

The other boy shrugged, grinning. "It's a surprise. Until then…"

Naruto jumped off the temple roof and did not look back. Behind him, Sasuke began to sing again.

_Won't that damn whore shut up? _Naruto tried to block it out, but even after he was far away somehow he could still hear the sound. He could still see the boy leaning against the stone statue, eyes closed, singing. That song. Why would he sing that song? _Why would a slave whore sing of love? _

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><p>Next:<strong> <strong>CHAPTER THREE: "Kindness At All Cost"<strong>**

**Author's Note:** This is my response to some reviews:

_1.** Akira:**__ "hmm... how can Sasuke have jade color eyes? is this the same Sasuke as Sasuke Uchiha? maybe i misread?"_

Sasuke is a different character, yes. So is Naruto. Just remember all the characters in this story are different. The Sasuke in my story has green eyes. There's a reason for this which will be revealed later.

2. _**LilyEverlasting:**__ "Okay, I officially love this story. I really enjoyed how you wrote this chapter… At first the character you made for Sasuke threw me off guard, I guess because in all fanfics he is done as cold, aloof, etc. It's interesting to see a different characterization of him."_

Yep. Naruto is cold and arrogant, Sasuke is a loudmouth. That's part of what I wanted to do with the fic, sort of re-interpret those two character archetypes in ways that you usually don't see. It's a different take on the same basic story, in a sense.


	3. Kindness At All Cost

Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO or the characters in it.**  
><strong>

**BIRTHRIGHT**

**CHAPTER THREE: "Kindness At All Cost"**

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><p>The nobles were halfway through the dinner when they started to get drunk. Very drunk.<p>

"_Must_ that slaveboy be here?" the Admiral Hyuuga Hiashi demanded loudly, banging his chopsticks on the table. "Slaves I don't mind, of course. Why, look at all these slaves serving our food and wine, whatever would we do without them? But _that _slave. A slave with a sword. A _sword_! Only we of the high blood, we have the right to hold a sword. No, that's not right, I say! I can't stand it!"

_I'd rather not be here myself_, Naruto thought. He was only there on his master's command, to protect them in case the Demon Fox attacked. And protection they needed. _The Admiral is so drunk he wouldn't know which end of my sword to grasp if I gave it to him. _

"Oh, Oji-san, don't be mean to little Naruto," the poet Namikaze Nyuka said. "He's a good boy. Not like the first Naruto. Yes, and he's a slave as well, I concede the point. What is it the monks say? We all have our vices."

"Some might say Lord Hiashi-san has the vice of being related to you, Nyuka-kun," Nara Rin said, giggling and waving her peacock feather fan. The other guests chuckled at the witticism. The Admiral's nephew was known to spend money as fast as he could talk girls out of their clothes, that was to say, very.

Lord Misain Arashi did not want to let the subject drop. "I fear Lord Hiashi-san is not wrong. Can we really trust any slave with weapons? Especially with all this talk of the so-called Sage of Six Paths in the air. Even in the high city the rumors grow louder by the day. Orochimaru is coming to free the slaves, they whisper. He is spreading liberty. He is bringing Kindness At All Cost. The slaves are being stirred up like a hornet's nest, set to strike at any moment."

Nyuka shrugged. "You worry too much. Have you forgot the words of Kishimo Jiraiya? 'For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only expedient, but necessary; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out as slaves, others as masters.' It's the law of the world." The poet grinned, raising his cup of sake. "Drink more wine, Arashi-sama, and listen less to idle talk."

Arashi frowned, the wrinkles on his thin, yellowish face rippling as he changed expression. "Yet since the rumors began coming from across the sea, it must be admitted the slaves have not been the same. You know how superstitious and stupid the whole lot are. Half of them believe the Sage of Six Paths is some sort of god who is come to liberate them from their chains, and the other half believe just the same thing only they think the Sage is a demon from hell instead. None believe he is just a man named Senju Orochimaru with a fancy robe and a few circus tricks. Fear and habit will keep the slaves in line, but only for so long."

"Pah!" Hyuuga Hiashi cried out. "Orochimaru this, Orochimaru that! I'm tired of hearing about the Butcher! I'm not afraid of him!" The Admiral banged his wine cup on the table, spraying sake all over his flushed red face. "Bring in the slavegirls!"

Naruto suppressed a groan. _Not the slavegirls again. _The last time Lord Hiashi called them in he had near died from the excitement, and he was not half as drunk then as now. _If he falls over tonight I suppose it will save the Kitsune a good deal of trouble._

Though not too much trouble, at that. Hiashi and his guests were feasting under a little outside pavilion in his garden, open on all four sides to the night air. The manor house was many yards away. Thickets of cherry and plum trees obscured the ground, and the roof of the lightly guarded Shinjukame Temple hung over the wall right in front of them. Naruto could not have picked a easier place to attack if he tried. It was a death trap. A pretty, relaxing, fragrant death trap to be sure, but that was hardly worth a dagger to the heart.

The boy had tried to warn Hiashi of the danger. The Admiral had ignored him. "Fuck your Demon Fox, and fuck you as well, slaveboy!" he had said. _Well, whatever happens tonight, Master can't blame me._

A horn sounded, and the slavegirls entered the pavilion, a dozen concubines in long sleeved robes of glittering silk. They made a ring around the table, dancing and swaying to the tune of flutes. Each seemed younger and prettier than the last.

"Now these are the kind of slaves that I like! No swords!" Lord Hiashi shouted.

The drunken nobles roared with glee. "No swords! No swords!" they echoed. Nyuka pounded the table so hard he turned over a bowl of blowfish soup, and the head monk of Shinjukame Temple, Maito Gai, went so far as to jump on top of it. "No swords!" the monk shouted. "Just scabbards!"

"_Scabbards_, is that what you call it?" Rin asked, giggling. "Men. Show them a hole and they'll try to stick something in it."

Sougon Sawar, the Minister of Coin, smiled. His sharp slitted eyes were as black and shiny as pools of coal oil. "It seems you are enjoying yourself as well, Lady Rin-san. What has it been, one week, since your husband was murdered by the Kitsune? And yet here you are… happier than ever, some might say."

"Spare me, Sawar-san." Rin popped chopsticks full of steamed beef with honey sauce into her mouth. "If Kakashi were not such a fat gouty fool he could hardly have been stabbed to death in his sleep, could he have?"

The Minister's eyes twinkled. "Would it have pleased you more if he died awake?"

It was not long before the slavegirls began to strip off each other's clothes. Naruto watched them idly. _They are not so beautiful as me, and a trained cow could dance better._ The nobles did not care about that, though. They banged the table as the girls started to touch and kiss each other in pairs. Each pair of girls clung together as if they were drowning, afraid to let go, bouncing up and down with frantic moans. Their waxed, oiled bodies glistened gold in the lantern light, their long thick hair spilled down over their breasts like flowing streams. The girls kissed, tongues sucking, biting. Their hips swayed from side to side. Their ripe round breasts jiggled and slapped against each other. The drunk men shouted for more. Soon the girls were moaning so loud they had gone half hoarse, clutching their partner's back so tight the painted nails raked blood. Naruto almost laughed. _They scream like constipated geese, if a goose could fake a scream that is. These slaves aren't lovers, they're puppets in a mummer's farce. The only real thing is the black cross branded on their foreheads._

Some were better at the farce than others, though. Even as the dinner guests talked and drank among themselves, they kept glancing at the pair of girls at the head of the table. One was a woman grown, with fiery red hair and a husky voice and huge breasts like melons. The other girl was younger than Naruto, doe-eyed and slim, with delicate fingers and breasts so tiny a man could hold them both in one hand. She leaned in to suck the husky woman's dark, stiff nipples, pulling and biting until the woman screamed in pain. The husky woman in turn pushed her fingers between the girl's legs, moving them in and out of her wet cunt, kneading it. The doe girl groaned, her body shivering with pleasure. Their sweet young bodies twined and snaked.

Namikaze Nyuka stood up. "Gods! I've just caught some sort of nasty disease!"

"What's wrong?" the other drunkards cried out.

"Why, I do believe my cock's gone hard as a mast. I can't stand it! Slavegirls! Slavegirls! Pray, I beg you, can you cure me?" Nyuka laughed, tossing his fine straight golden hair. The poet gathered the two slavegirls to him, one to each arm. The husky woman grinded her breasts against the poet's chest, the doe girl reached down a hand to grab the poet's manhood. "Is that a yes? What's that, girls? Oh, _yes_, I _do_ have a sword." Nyuka led the slaves stumbling down the garden path, toward the manor house.

"Our poor diseased poet," Rin laughed. "It's hard to cure a chronic illness."

Meanwhile, the talk of the other guests had drifted back to the topic of the night.

"I fear you underestimate Orochimaru, Lord Hiashi-san," Misain Arashi was saying. "Thirteen years ago when he fled across the sea he was a hunted man, penniless and in disgrace. Yet now he is more powerful than he ever was before. He rules the entire south with an iron fist."

Hiashi spat. "Pah! The Butcher uses the southerners like a pirate on a captured ship. I'm not afraid of him!"

Sougon Sawar smiled. "But what if the stories are true? The Sage has magic eyes, they say. He can make the five elements with his hands. He can heal the sick and raise the dead. They even say he has imprisoned the legendary nine tailed demons… "

"Ridiculous!" Hiashi sputtered. "Sawar, damn you, I'm drunk as piss, but I'm not stupid! Listen! The Butcher may have conquered the south, he may be some prophet _over there_, I don't care. If he wants to come _over here_ he must cross the Endless Sea. And in spite of all his so-called magic, the Butcher can't fly. Yes?" For no apparent reason the Admiral started to beat his chest with his fists, like a gorilla. "I've crossed the Endless Sea, and I tell you, I thank the gods I am still alive. The storms take seven out of every ten ships. If the Butcher is so stupid as to sail with a fleet from the south, he'lldie. And if he doesn't, I'll meet him with the Scarlet Fleet and destroy him. The Butcher does not have a chance! No chance!"

"That may be," Misain Arashi said, "but if so, then why is the Warlord so worried? Why would he recall the entire Scarlet Fleet to defend Sawara?"

"Why do you think?" Hiashi cried, too drunk to hold his tongue. "Our great Warlord is bloody afraid. Anyone can see that. Itachi-sama feels the danger in his bones, he told me. Hah! In that scar on his head, more like. Aye, I don't blame him, of course. The Butcher killed his whole family during the Night of Blood. Terrible… terrible…"

Arashi nodded. His face was grave. "Yes, the Night of Blood. Even now I can scare believe that Orochimaru could do such a thing. I was invited to the wedding, but Rin was sick and I had to take care of her. We all thought it was a day blessed by gods. The union of the Senju and Uchiha clans… dashing Orochimaru and beautiful Sakura. Who could have imagined it was a trap? The Butcher burned them all alive, his bride, his bride's family, even his own father. You could see the flames consume the castle from miles away. Only Itachi-sama survived. He could have gone mad, but instead he became stronger, harder. Those of us who knew Itachi as a boy remember how soft he was, how weak. But after the Night of Blood he became a man. Itachi-sama was reborn that night."

The monk Maito Gai unexpectedly popped his head out from between a slavegirl's breasts. His face was beet red, his words were slurred, but his voice boomed as he chanted a phrase. It was not one that Naruto had ever heard before:

_Before they are born,  
>Things cannot decline to be born;<br>Already dead,  
>They cannot refuse to go.<em>

"What is that, Gai-san?" Hiashi demanded. "Some Zen sutra?"

The monk smiled stupidly, rubbing his shaved head. "Is it?" He blinked. "Oh! I heard it from a girl down by the port. I think. There's more… something about Kindness At All Cost…"

There was a scream, strangled, cut short.

It came from the samurai guarding the garden path outside. He stumbled, clawing at his throat, blood running down his hands. A kunai was lodged in his windpipe. _Shit!_ Naruto unsheathed his sword and rushed forward. Maito Gai screamed, covering his face. Naked slavegirls ran in all directions. Rin laughed. There was a general wild uproar.

And then he was there, in the pavilion. He stepped onto the roof somehow, walking on it upside down. The man wore black ninja garb, and a mask of black cloth covered his lower face, exposing only glittering green eyes and spikes of silver hair. Around his forehead was a white bandana with a gold symbol stitched in it, a spiraling eye within a six-sided wall. In each hand the man held a kunai.

_The Kitsune_, Naruto thought. _So you're here at last. Come then, and taste my blade. _

But the man did not attack, and then samurai were rushing in from all sides, warned by the scream. Within moments the Kitsune was surrounded. For a long moment the two sides just stared at each other. Then Hyuuga Hiashi staggered to his feet, his head near level with the upside-down assassin. "Why hello, Demon Fox!" the Admiral said. "Come to enjoy some wine and women? Haha!"

The Kitsune spoke. It was a feral voice, harsh and guttural. "I have a message for you. All of you. It is from the Sage of Six Paths himself. He is coming. He is coming from across the sea to bring Kindness, and freedom, and justice. And all who stand in his way shall die. You are not the first, nor will you be the last."

The assassin attacked. His movement was a whirling blur, as fast as Naruto had ever seen. But Naruto was fast as well, and he was at an advantage, since he was on the ground and the Kitsune was in the air. The slaveboy slid between the Kitsune's kunai, right below him, and thrust his katana upwards as hard as he could. He exulted as the sword went straight into the Kitsune's chest. But even as he did so the man burst apart, fading away into strands of smoke. _Impossible! _Was this magic?

Naruto spun, out of position, only to watch as the real Kitsune came from behind, on the other side of the room. _His smoke body was just a decoy_. And then in an instant the man was right above Admiral Hiashi, kneeling on the roof. Naruto noticed the ninja was not holding anything. But he did something with his hands and fingers, flashing them in some sort of pattern, fast as a blink.

"Katon!" the Kitsune yelled.

Fire exploded from the Demon Fox's mouth.

The fireball hit Hiashi at point blank range. He did not even have time to scream. The force of the fire blew up the dinner table and a good portion of the pavilion. _Damn! Not bloody magic again!_ Naruto pushed through the sudden smoke and fire. Sawar had dodged the fireball, taking Rin and the monk with him, saving their lives. But what remained of Hyuuga Hiashi lay in the ruins of the burning room, charred to ash, along with several samurai and two naked women. All dead. _Master will be very displeased. _

The Kitsune still stood on the roof. He stared at Naruto, his eyes glittering, glowing in the fire like hot coals. He seemed to smile. "Oops," he said. "I missed the rest of them. Well. There's always next time."

"Damn you!" Naruto shouted. "I'll have your head for this, demon!"

The ninja laughed as he fled the burning pavilion. "Then catch me, slaveboy, if you can."

* * *

><p>Next: <strong>CHAPTER FOUR: "The Perfect Weapon"<strong>


	4. The Perfect Weapon

Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO or the characters in it.**  
><strong>

**BIRTHRIGHT**

**CHAPTER FOUR: "The Perfect Weapon"**

* * *

><p>Naruto chased the Demon Fox across the rooftops of Sawara.<p>

The boy was not the only hunter. Samurai flooded in from all sides, trying to encircle the Kitsune. The net was closing quickly. At this rate the Kitsune would not even make it out of the High District before he had been caught. _No, too easy_, the boy thought. _The fox must have a foxhole. _But where was it?

Naruto pushed his speed to the limit. He was only yards behind the fleeing ninja, close enough he could hear the ninja's feet clattering on the clay roof tiles as they ran, hear his ragged breath. "It seems something is wrong with your heart, Demon Fox," the boy called. "I can hear it pounding from back here."

The ninja twisted his head around, green eyes flashing. "It mean's I'm still alive. What's wrong with that?"

The Kitsune turned direction, running east toward the river. A wall of samurai was already there, blocking the way. _He means to go through them_, Naruto realized. But how? Would he use the fire magic spell again? Naruto's mind raced through the possibilities. The last time the man had cast the spell, he had used a sequence of hand gestures to do it. Perhaps he needed them for the magic to work. _If so, while he's waving his hands around __I'll leap from behind and cut off his head. _

Instead the ninja threw a kunai; it struck at the feet of the samurai blockade. A little paper tag was attached to the handle. A pink-haired samurai laughed. "Aiming for the roof will do you no good, Demon Fox!" he shouted.

The paper tag exploded.

Only a smoking hole remained to mark the spot where the pink-haired samurai had stood. A second later the rest of the roof caved in, swallowing any nearby samurai in a cloud of dust and wood chips. Naruto skidded to a stop, stunned. _An exploding piece of paper?_ Where was the Kitsune? There. He was already on the other side, beyond the blockade, running out of the High District, and into the low city. _Shit!_

The Kitsune looked back as he ran, his silver hair whipping in the wind. He laughed. "Do you still hear my heart, slaveboy?"

"I heard enough already," Naruto gave back, rather feebly.

The boy began the hunt again, now further behind. The ninja veered south. At this angle he would soon reach the heart of the Merchant District, the riverbank where Sawara Bridge intersected Market Street. The slave markets. Wide open squares, with few hiding places, and strongly guarded. It was a perfect chance to corner the ninja…

_No_, Naruto realized. _Something's wrong. That's what he did before, and he escaped. _If Kakashi's old samurai had told him true, the Kitsune they caught in Market Street had turned to magic smoke. A decoy body.

Could it be? Had the man done the same thing this time? But when had he used his hands to cast the spell? Naruto would have seen it. _No_. The exploding paper tag, the cloud of smoke. The Kitsune could have done it then. If so, then Naruto was running in the wrong direction. _Not south, north._ He could not be sure he was right, but it was a risk he had to take.

Naruto turned north. He had a hunch as to where the real Kitsune might be heading. East of the High District, across the river, was the capital's Pleasure District, otherwise known as Sin City. It was a nest of criminals and traitors and outcasts, the scum of Sawara. Why hadn't he thought of it before? The Demon Fox would fit right in.

The slaveboy did not guess wrong. Soon he spotted a small, black-clothed figure in the distance. The Kitsune was not running nearly as fast as he had been before. _He's let his guard down._ At once Naruto slid down to street level to conceal his pursuit, running down the narrow, winding lanes, pushing through the night crowds heading to Sin City. The Kitsune had just enough headway on him to cross the river, but after that the bridges converged at the Street of Beggars, the heart of the Pleasure District. He would intercept the assassin there.

The sounds of the city, subdued and near silent west of the river, began to roar. Song and laughter drifted from kabuki theaters. Half-naked whores catcalled from brothel windows. Gaggles of lord's wives haggled over the latest fashions in the streets. In the midst of all this noise Naruto could barely hear anything else, but then he did. The sound of footsteps on rooftop tiles.

The Kitsune was right above him. _I found the foxhole, and now it's time to smoke the fox out. _Gathering himself, Naruto braced himself on a pillar and leapt up to the roof with one kick. The ninja was there, in front of him, his silver hair shining in the light of the crescent moon, his green eyes wide with shock.

_I've got you, you little magic coward ninja demon bitch. _Naruto swung his katana as hard as he could.

The Demon Fox dodged at the last second, throwing himself backward, rolling on the clay tiles into a crouch. The slash had been so close it cut off a lock of his silver hair, which drifted to the street below.

"You are persistent, slaveboy," the Demon Fox growled in that feral voice. "Did you miss the sound of my heart?"

"No, I was concerned for your stomach," Naruto said. "You've been running so hard, you must be hungry. Here, have a taste of this."

Naruto attacked. He drove at the man, bringing his sword above his head in a swift deadly arc. The Kitsune blocked the slash with his two kunai. Steel meet steel with a ringing, bone-jarring _clang_. But Naruto pressed the attack, the blade like lightning in his hands, and the man was forced to fall back. The slave rained steel upon the ninja, blow after blow. No sooner did the Kitsune turn one cut than the next was upon him.

Naruto's blood was singing. This was what he was meant for; he never felt so alive as when he was fighting, with death balanced on every stroke. This is what his master had trained him for. He was a weapon, his master's weapon. _I am his right arm._ _I am the instrument of my master's will. No demon cannot withstand me. _The steel blades kissed and sprang apart and kissed again.

"You're strong," the Kitsune said at last, chest heaving. "Almost as strong as me."

"Oh, a poor choice of last words. I'll be sure to carve them on your gravestone."

Naruto whirled his blade, striking, hacking, a dance of steel. The Kitsune was at a disadvantage. He had the same build and height as Naruto, but Naruto's katana had a reach far greater than the ninja's daggers. _That's what you get for sneaking around stabbing people at night instead of carrying a real weapon._ The slaveboy could attack as he pleased, but the ninja had no way to counter. It was all he could do to parry and fall back. High, low, overhand, Naruto rained down death upon him. Left, right, backslash, swinging so hard that sparks flew when the weapons came together, upswing, thrust, overhand, always attacking, moving into the enemy, step and slide, strike and step, step and strike, strike and leap, hacking, slashing, faster, faster, faster…

Naruto could not have said how long he pressed the attack. It might have been minutes or it might have been hours; time slept when swords woke. He drove the Kitsune back, across a brothel roof, then across it to the next roof, on and on, pushing him across the rooftops of Sin City. A dozen times Naruto thought the man was done, that the next cut would finish him, but somehow the ninja slipped out of from the killing stroke. The dance went on. Steel rang, steel sang, steel screamed and sparked and scraped, and Naruto grunted with effort at every crash.

_It can't go on like this. _Naruto's sword seemed to grow heavier with each passing could not attack forever, and he dared not rest. If he gave the ninja an opening, any opening, the Kitsune's hands would be free to use magic, and then Naruto would be finished. He needed to end it, but how?

Then he saw the way. He had the Demon Fox pinned against a roof corner, with walls on either side. The man had no room to maneuver. Naruto pretended to fall, but he twisted the fall into a diving lunge, a lightning thrust with all his weight behind it. The momentum took the point of his sword past the man's parry. But the ninja dodged again, somehow, sidestepping the thrust. At once the Kitsune had closed the distance between them, close enough he could reach out his arm and touch the boy's cheek.

Naruto saw too late his mistake. _Shit! He's inside my guard._ At this range his katana was useless, but the ninja's kunai were not. The Kitsune slashed upwards, at Naruto's throat. Naruto dropped his sword, using the free hand to grab at the ninja's arm. The motion was clumsy, and he lost his balance, falling hard to the tiled roof, but it was just enough to save his life. Naruto rolled backwards into a crouch, now barehanded. _Fuck!_

The Kitsune laughed. "Like I said… _almost_ as strong. 'Till next time, slaveboy."

The ninja hopped off the roof into the street. "Kitsune!" Naruto yelled. The boy tried to follow, sword be damned, but he had just enough sense to notice two kunai stuck into the roof's edge. Paper tags were attached to the handles, scrawled with strange markings. And the markings… burned…

Naruto flung himself hard to the side. The tags exploded, taking half the roof with it. The boy lay on his stomach, coughing and stunned. _I hate magic._ Through the smoke he could see dimly down through the hole in the roof. Several whores had been killed by falling debris, and the rest were running around screaming in various states of dress. _At least it didn't collapse this time._

When he got back to his feet, the Demon Fox was gone.

It was a long way back to the palace. It was almost on the other side of the city, down the Street of Beggars, across the Haven River, through the Samurai District, and up the steep, towering hill that led to the high city. Naruto's muscles ached as he climbed the hill, as he trudged up the endless stone stairs that flanked the palace entrance. All of sudden he felt very tired. _Master will be very displeased_, he thought again.

When the slaveboy came to the throne room at last, it was half past midnight. Throngs of petty functionaries crowded into the chamber, staring at Naruto when he walked in. They knew what had happened, of course, but Naruto could not care less for those bleating sheep. He had eyes only for the man who sat cross-legged on the throne at the far end, beneath a great mural of the ancient kings of old, the Birthright Emperors who had ruled the land for a thousand years from this place.

Now it was Uchiha Itachi, Warlord of the Blood Country, who ruled. His master was dressed in robes of the finest silken gold, but his head was bowed and his face all in shadow, as if hid by a black mask. He sat motionless as a statue as Naruto approached. _Not a good sign. That means he's angry. _

Naruto kneeled on all fours, and bowed his head to the ground. "Master. I failed you. Admiral Hyuuga Hiashi-dono is dead, and the Kitsune is escaped. He is far more dangerous than we knew. I—"

His master held up a hand. "Leave us," he said. The functionaries hurried to obey, scurrying like roaches before the sun. In seconds the Warlord and his slaveboy were alone.

The boy swallowed, nervously. "Master, please, let me explain—"

Itachi interrupted him. "Come here, Naruto." The boy fell silent and went to him. The man gestured with his hand to his lap. The slave curled up on it, laying his head on the master's shoulder. Lord Itachi's thick hair hung down like a silver glacier, brushing against the boy's cheek, and his huge arms swallowed the boy's slender body. This was the posture his master liked best when they were together, and Naruto reveled in the safe, strong embrace. For a moment he forgot his fear.

His master stroked the boy's face softly. Naruto closed his eyes. "Little Naruto," his master whispered. "My dear little slave. I gave you a mission."

"I know, Master. I failed. But it wasn't my fault. The Kitsune can use some sort of magic. I saw it myself—create illusions of his body, spit fire from his mouth. Master, no one can defeat him alone. And Lord Hiashi-dono, I warned him—"

Itachi slipped his hand into Naruto's kimono. Naruto felt the strong, rough hand slide slowly down his bare chest and belly, then between his thighs. Naruto's dick was hard, and the man stroked it through the loincloth. "Naruto. You seem to forget your place. Do you remember who you are?"

"I am your tool, Master. I live only to serve you."

"Yes. You are my weapon. The perfect weapon. Whatever I will, you obey without question. Whatever I ask of you, you accomplish. But it seems my weapon… it is rusty…" Itachi slipped his hand under the loincloth and grabbed the boy's cock. The hand enclosed it all, tight as a vise. "And what, little Naruto, must be done to a rusty weapon?"

Naruto gasped as Itachi squeezed his penis. _The rust must be cleansed._ "Please, Master. It wasn't my fault." _He's going to punish me. I can feel it. It will be bad this time, very bad._

Itachi squeezed harder. "Then why is my Admiral dead?"

The slaveboy cried out in pain as the master wrung his dick. Tears leaked from his eyes. "It's really Hiashi's fault anyway! If he listened to me—" Naruto trailed off. He knew as he said it that he had made a mistake. He opened his eyes to stare into his master's face, at those dark merciless eyes, and that terrible burned scar. "Master, I didn't… I meant…"

Uchiha Itachi's voice was colder than ice. "I heard what you said. It seems I have indulged you too much. You do not act as a slave should. Or have you forgotten?"

"Please, Master—"

Suddenly the Warlord leaped to his feet, and took his slave with him, holding the boy in the air by his erect cock. Naruto screamed, the pressure on his dick so great it seemed about to snap. The Warlord flung him. The boy went through the mural and smashed on the wood pillar behind it, cracking it in two. He lay dazed in the rubble. His ribs were cracked, and he coughed blood.

His master stood over him. His face was a mask, so bloodless that it might have been sculpted from snow. "Hyuuga Hiashi is the clan leader of one of the great _noble _bloodlines. You are a _slave_. Do you presume to give _advice_ to him?" Itachi kicked his slave in the gut. It was like being hit with an iron hammer. The boy could only curl up into a ball, crying in pain. "Will you give advice to _me _next?"

"Never, Master! Never!"

"You are a slave. And that is all you are. Never forget it."

"Master, I failed you. I'm sorry!" _I failed him. I'm his tool and I failed. All my fault. All my fault…_

"As you should. My Admiral is dead. I am displeased." Itachi beat him viciously, over and over again, like a stray dog. "I am very, very displeased…"

Naruto screamed. His vision swam with purple spots. He felt his ribs break, his guts rupture. The last time his master had beat him this badly was years ago. His master was so angry. _He's going to kill me_. No, he could not die yet. He had to live, his mission was not done. _I must protect Master._ He had tried to warn him. The Kitsune always attacks a bigger target than the last. Hyuuga Hiashi was dead and there was only one person in the country who was more important._ You, Master. The Demon Fox will come for you next._

* * *

><p>Next: <strong>CHAPTER FIVE: "Brand of Kindness"<strong>


	5. Brand of Kindness

Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO or the characters in it.

**BIRTHRIGHT  
><strong>

**CHAPTER FIVE: "Brand of Kindness"**

* * *

><p>The heads of the dead men hung from spikes, rows upon rows, hundreds of them, lining the wooden bridge.<p>

In another life they had been samurai, the personal household guards of General Kakashi and Admiral Hiashi. But their lives had ended when their lord's had. In his rage the Warlord had them all put to death.

Naruto walked between the heads, limping slightly. One of the heads seemed familiar. Through the rotting flesh and the buzzing flies, the boy just barely recognized the old, wrinkled samurai who had been Kakashi's captain of guards. That day he had begged the boy to intervene with the Warlord to save their lives.

_I barely saved my own, yours I could not bother with. _It did not matter that the Demon Fox was made of magic smoke. It did not matter that he was a sorcerer. _The price for failure is death, that is the law of the Blood Country. It is my master's law. _

A lance of pain shot up Naruto's side. He stumbled, clutching his ribs, gritting his teeth. The wounds had not fully healed yet, even now, almost a week after the beating. Naruto was just glad to be alive. "You have served me well, Naruto," his master had told him when the boy woke up afterward. "You will not fail me again, will you, my little slave?" And Naruto had shook his head, no, no, I won't, I'll find the Kitsune, I promise, please, I promise.

The boy crossed over the wooden bridge into the Pleasure District. Sin City was not very busy this time of morning; still, the signs of sin were everywhere. Several whores catcalled to Naruto from windowsills, thinking him a samurai. Two geishas in colorful silk kimonos passed by, giggling and laughing and twirling umbrellas. A squid seller hawked his wares to a group of exotic dancers with painted faces.

Was the Demon Fox still here? The boy didn't know. The ninja had not been sighted since his attack on Hyuuga Hiashi, one week ago. By now he could be in a ship halfway across the Endless Sea. _That would be most inconvenient. _Somehow, though, Naruto thought the Kitsune had not left the city. _No, he's here, hiding somewhere, I can almost taste it._ But where? And as what?

Naruto walked the streets of Sin City slowly, circling from the central Street of Beggars outward to the more seedy establishments on the fringes. He was not sure what he was searching for, what sign or symbol hidden in this nest of criminals was the key to the hunt. It did not help matters when it began to rain. The misty spring rain pattered on the dusty streets, turning them into a slosh of mud. Naruto cursed his luck, and dodged under the hanging roofs. His left leg ached, and every so often he had to stop to catch his breath.

On one of these stops the boy noticed the name of a brothel next to him. The sign was painted in large red characters: "HOUSE OF BROTHERLY LOVE." It was the whorehouse of the slave Naruto had met a few weeks ago, on the roof of Shinjukame Temple.

_How droll_, the boy thought._ I search for the Kitsune, and fate sends me a whore instead. _He turned to go, but then stopped. He could not get much done wandering around in the rain, and besides, this was the same area where his fight with the Kitsune had taken place. Perhaps he could question some of the whores, ask if they had seen something. It could not hurt.

Naruto went inside.

The brothel was a ramshackle building, dirty and poorly lit. _The finest erotic establishment this side of Sawara, indeed._ Several young male slaves in robes of thin linen lounged around the common room; they looked about as cheap as their clothes.

A thin man with a pockmarked face and black eyes like slits sat behind a counter. He rose when he saw the slaveboy, grinning broadly. He actually took a little bow. "Greetings, my friend. I welcome you to the House of Brotherly Love. I have the honor to be Momochi Zabuza."

_Where's the honor in that?_ The only good thing to be said about a pimp was that at least they were not whores.

Naruto had to be polite, though. He bowed. "Zabuza-dono, I am Naruto, slaveboy of the Warlord Itachi."

"Ah. And what can I do for you? Perhaps you would like to peruse my specimens of Love? Care to take a look, friend?"

"He's lookin' for the Demon Fox, Master," a voice piped up.

Naruto knew the voice. He turned. The other boy was on the top of the steps leading to the second floor, shirtless and barefoot, a grin on his face. Sasuke. For a moment Naruto's tongue tied in knots, and he could not speak. But then he said, "And what would you know about that, whore?"

"More than you. I'll tell, but it's gonna cost ya somethin' pretty." The boy turned to Zabuza. "Master, let him up. I know what he wants."

Zabuza grinned, spreading his hands. "Of course, anything for my friend." _He must think I'm rich._

Naruto bowed again. "Thank you, Zabuza-dono."

Naruto followed Sasuke up a flight of stairs, then down a long hall to a small, cramped room. There was nothing in the room but a padded quilt thrown on the wooden floorboards, a large trunk, and a small table with a washpan. The stench of semen and sweat flooded the air. Sasuke slid the door closed behind them. With one hand he fingered back his black hair, and Naruto saw the slaveseal branded on his forehead. "I told ya we'd see each other again," he said.

"I'm pleased your memory works so well."

"Thanks." Sasuke seemed to stare into Naruto's eyes. "I like you, ya'know. I dunno why, but I do."

Naruto could not help but stare back. The other boy was wearing nothing but a loincloth, not even a robe. His body was slim as a sword, his skin as smooth and white as the moon. A tangle of scruffy hair, dark as a raven's feathers, shaded his glittering green eyes, like shadows against the leaves of summer. _Those eyes_… suddenly they seemed familiar, somehow, as if Naruto had seen them somewhere else, not on Shinjukame Temple but more recently. He could not place it. "Tell me what you know of the Demon Fox," he said.

Sasuke smiled. "I saw you two fighting. That night, on the rooftops."

"You did?"

"Lotsa people could've seen it, if they'd bothered. Ya' were running all around Sin City, trying to hack each other apart with swords. Nobody ever looks up though." Sasuke shrugged. "I saw the Kitsune get away, too."

Naruto tensed at that. _Could this whore actually know what I want?_ "Where did he go? You must tell me. You will be greatly rewarded, I promise you."

"Yeah? Wha'do I get?"

"If you speak the truth, the Warlord will grant you whatever you desire. You can be a lord, with a palace in the high city, with your own slaves." _Well, maybe not the lord part. Or the palace. Or the slaves. What's a little lie in a good cause? _

Sasuke giggled. "Okay. And what happens to him?"

"Who?"

"The Demon Fox, dummy. What're ya gonna do to him, if I tell you?"

"Less than he deserves for his crimes."

"Crimes? That depends on where ya are. Look around you, Naruto. You ain't in the High City no more. It's all slaves and commoners here. They can't care less bout no dead Admiral, and the ones who could be bothered might give the Kitsune a hero's salute if they had the chance. Hey now, don't get so frowny like that. You're pouting. I said I'd tell ya, right? Well… after the fight, I saw the Kitsune run north. He passed right over the roof over there, and then he was runnin' east. And he just kept on runnin', like really fast. I think he was headin' for the Godswood."

The Godswood was the Warlord's private hunting grounds, on the outskirts of Sawara near Sin City. A good hiding place, sparsely guarded, easy to get in and out of. It made sense. "You must show me the precise location," Naruto said. "At once."

"Well… okay. But later. I didn't bring ya up here just to talk, ya'know." The boy's smile was by turns shy, insolent, and wicked. His cheeks dimpled. "I told you, I like you."

"Is that another proposition, whore?" Naruto smirked. "I fear I must decline, I quite prefer to be free of venereal disease. You shall have payment enough, I promise. Enough coin to pay over your last thousand fucks."

Suddenly Sasuke seemed angry. He turned away, then whirled back, raven hair flying, eyes flashing. "Is that who you think you are? You acting all so stuffy and serious. Like you're better somehow. You're a slaveboy, same as me."

"You're a whore, not a slaveboy."

"All slaves are whores in their master's eyes. It's just I spread my legs on a cheap rug, and you do it under silk sheets. We both get fucked the same. Or shall I call you m'lord slave? Naruto-dono? Would your master like that?"

_The whore speaks treason._ For some reason Naruto was getting angry, too. "Enough. Yes, we are slaves. We are our master's tools. But we are not the same. I am my master's perfect weapon, I am with him always, I am his right arm. And you, you're nothing, you're just a worthless whore, nobody cares about you or if you live or die. We're nothing alike!"

The other boy laughed. "No, maybe not. You're such a good little slave. So damn loyal. That scar on ya' forehead ain't a brand of evil, for you. It ain't. It's a brand of kindness. I never met anybody like that. Ya'know… I think... that's why I like you…"

Sasuke stepped toward Naruto. He reached out to wrap his arms around the other boy's waist… and Naruto drew back. But as he did so he gasped in pain, wincing, and had to put a hand on the table to keep from falling. _Shit. Not now._

Sasuke's green eyes widened. "You're hurt," he said simply. "Show me."

"Stop," Naruto gasped. "Get away."

"Show me," Sasuke said again, insistent. He moved to pull down Naruto's robe, but Naruto stumbled back again, toward the door.

"Naruto!" Sasuke said. "Come on, I know ya're hurt. I have medicine. I can help you… please…"

He moved to touch Naruto a third time and this time Naruto let him. Sasuke's fingers were gentle as he slowly slid Naruto's robe down to the waist, baring the slaveboy's chest and back.

When he saw the bruises Sasuke's eyes grew wide as full moons. "Wow! Even I never got beat so bad."

"A great pity."

Sasuke reached out a trembling hand to touch the ugly black-blue bruises on Naruto's body. To Naruto's surprise, he saw that the other boy's eyes were filled with tears. "Did the Warlord do this to you?" he whispered. "He beat you because you didn't protect that stupid old Admiral, didn't he? Because he wanted to punish you? So he beat you?"

"He seldom beats me to improve my health."

"That's not funny." Sasuke dug around in his trunk for some cream ointment. "Come on, sit. This'll make ya feel better."

Naruto sat, kneeling on his legs. Sasuke kneeled down with him and gently rubbed the cream on the bruises with soft, sure fingers. It felt good. "Silly," Sasuke said. "You're not gonna try to fight the Kitsune with wounds like that, are ya? Best wait 'til ya're healed before I take you to the Godswood." He finished in silence and then turned his head away.

They didn't speak for a while. Then Naruto said, "I never met anyone like you either."

"And ya' don't even know me yet." Sasuke smiled at him, a flash of bright white teeth. The tip of his tongue ran across his lower lip like a shy pink animal.

Then somehow the other boy's arms were around his neck, his face close enough Naruto could see his own reflection in those gleaming jade eyes. He could feel the boy's sweet breath, smell his dark oiled fragrance. Naruto didn't move away. _No, no, what am I doing? I can't—_

"Sasuke—" Naruto started.

Sasuke leaned forward and their mouths met. A light touch on the lips, at first, but then deeper, then their lips pressed tight and Naruto shut his eyes and they threw themselves against each other, pressing, sucking, and their lips parted and warm wet tongues met and danced, twisting, sliding, and Naruto's hands clutched at the other boy's head, digging into his soft scruffy hair, and the kiss seemed to last forever, and Naruto's cock was hard and stiff as iron, and Sasuke's mouth was hot and burning and it tasted like the summer wind…

"No," Naruto gasped. He pushed the other boy back. "No… I can't." He panted, his face all flushed red, his glittering blue eyes dilated like saucers. "Stop. No."

Sasuke was flushed, too. The clear outline of an erect penis poked up through the fabric of his loincloth. "What's the rush?" he whispered. "Don't leave me now, Naruto." He leaned in for another kiss, but this time the boy scrambled back, standing up.

"No," Naruto said. "No. I can't. I must go." He stumbled for the door.

The raven-haired boy knelt on the floor and watched him go. "Till next time, then."

* * *

><p>Next: <strong>CHAPTER SIX: "Just One Last Thing"<strong>


	6. Just One Last Thing

Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO or the characters in it.

**BIRTHRIGHT**

**CHAPTER SIX: "Just One Last Thing"**

* * *

><p>The Godswood at night was still, but not silent. Amid the dark trees Naruto could hear the calls of distant sparrows and pheasants, the singing of crickets. The sound seemed to drill into the forest depths, echoing all around them.<p>

"Here," Sasuke said. "The Demon Fox came this way." He pointed to a footprint pressed in a caked clump of earth.

"Well done," Naruto said. "The Warlord is pleased. Return to Sin City, and await your reward. I'll continue on."

Sasuke smiled, a flash of white teeth in the night. "I don't want to."

"You—" Naruto's face flushed red. _Why must he make this so difficult_? The boy groped for words, for a retort. "It is not safe for a whore to walk the woods alone at night."

"I'm not alone."

"Oh, you will be."

Sasuke's smile faded. "I know these woods as good as you. I can help ya track the Kitsune—I found the print, didn't I? Don't leave me, Naruto. Please."

The whore had a point, he was forced to admit. _It will last one night, and then I'll never see him again._ "Fine, then. Lead on."

Sasuke grinned, then darted into the forest like a cat. Naruto followed behind at a safe distance. He dared not let the other boy get too close, less… and suddenly he could feel Sasuke's mouth on his tongue again, feel the blazing heat of his lips. _No_. He must stop thinking about that. It was just a kiss. He had kissed other boys before. _But that was in Master Itachi's presence, on Master's orders… _no, stop thinking about it. Stop.

And yet Naruto had not, not for the whole week. Not during his dreams, not during his waking moments. Not even yesterday, when his master had finally taken Naruto back to bed, and his master was thrusting into him with all his violent power, and tears leaked down Naruto's cheeks from the pain—not even then did the slaveboy forget Sasuke's face.

_I betrayed Master_, Naruto thought afterward. _I live only to serve him, and I failed. I must never see that whore again._But that was impossible. He had still to find the Demon Fox, and Sasuke was the only one who could help him. _Yet another crime to lay on this bloody Kitsune's head. _

The Kitsune's trail led from the edge of the Godswood deeper and deeper into the forest. At last they came to a clearing, a small bare field hidden between twisting pine trees. People had been there before them. Many of the branches had been hacked off for firewood, and a circle of ashes lay on the ground, the remains of a covered fire. Cloth tents were sprawled here and there, fallen-in from disuse.

"This is a hideout," Naruto said, understanding. "A meeting place." There were too many tents for one person to have used. Of course; the Kitsune must be in contact with Orochimaru's other spies, other traitors. _A conspiracy in the heart of the Blood Country_...

"Was a hideout," Sasuke said, gesturing to the old ashes, the collapsed tents. "Ain't nobody been here for a while."

"Yet you claimed the Kitsune was here less than two weeks ago."

Sasuke shrugged. "Maybe he came back to get somethin'. Maybe he was sendin' a message to his boss." The boy paused. "The prophet's coming, you know. The Sage of Six Paths. He's coming to free all the slaves."

"You have a bold tongue, whore. Some one is like to cut it out and make you eat it."

"That so?" Sasuke licked his lips. "And who'll cut my tongue? You?"

A blush crept up Naruto's cheeks. _That was not what I meant._ He turned away, staring at a pine tree. Somehow he could still the other boy's face.

Sasuke giggled behind him. "Look!" he called in a light voice. "The moon."

Above the clearing the moon hung in the pines, as round and pale as white porcelain, shadowed by dark branches. "Look! Don't you see it?" Sasuke exclaimed again. "How pretty!"

At once the boy scrambled up one of the pine trees, higher and higher, until he disappeared and Naruto could not see him. But then the boy appeared again, shimmying along a branch out into the clearing. Drops of dew shook from the branch as it bent down under his weight. "Get down from there," Naruto said, annoyed.

Sasuke laughed from high overhead. "I can see all of the moon from here!" Moonlight tumbled over the boy's slender body, made his black hair gleam like silver. "It's so beautiful!"

Naruto blinked. The whore had lost his mind. "It's a big rock in the sky."

"Naruto! Naruto!" Sasuke cried suddenly, almost with tears in his voice. "Look! Just look how pretty it is! How can you sleep!"

"I was not aware that I was."

"Oh, but you are. You _are_, ya're always sleeping. Look! Wake up, Naruto! There's never, never been such a lovely night. Never."

The slaveboy clenched his jaws in irritation. "I doubt you shall have much luck catcalling down the moon, whore," he said.

"No, Naruto, please, just look. Don't you see? The moon… it's so free. It's so happy. Sometimes… sometimes I dream I could be like that. Flying. Just flying away. Ya see? Like this." Suddenly Sasuke stood up on the pine branch, spreading his arms high over his head. The branch quivered under him.

"Enough. You'll fall."

"Maybe." Sasuke leaned his head back, tilted up on tiptoe. His voice was a whisper. "Or maybe I'll fly. How do ya know 'till you try?" And then suddenly he fell backwards off the branch, spread-eagled in the moonlight, plunging to the ground far below.

Naruto leaped with all his might. He caught the other boy in his arms just before he hit the ground. "What the fuck are you doing?" he shouted.

Sasuke's eyes were closed, as if he were asleep. But then he opened them. Jade eyes glittered, stared wickedly. "I was flying."

"You…" Naruto wanted to fling the whore away. Instead he held him tight against his chest. His heart was pounding. "You could have died! You… I don't understand you! You don't take anything seriously!"

"I do what I want." Sasuke slowly slid his arms around Naruto's neck, cupped Naruto's face in his hands. He was so close. _No. No, please._ So close. "And you want the same thing I do, don't ya?"

"Sasuke," Naruto whispered. "Sasuke, don't—"

Sasuke pressed his mouth to Naruto's. They kissed. The other boy's lips tasted like the burning wind, his tongue like madness. And then Naruto was lost, he could not fight it, he could not stop. An unbearable wild lust coursed through his blood and he dug his fingers in Sasuke's back and he forgot everything, _gods, oh yes, YES_—

They kissed again, mouths shoving greedily at each other. And suddenly the two boys were rolling on the ground, limbs all entangled in the grass, and Naruto's hands were fumbling at Sasuke's robes, at his belt and then his loincloth, clutching at the pale white skin beneath. Sasuke squirmed beneath him, nimble and taut as a cat, his soft, hungry little mouth sucking at Naruto's lips, his long thin fingers sliding beneath Naruto's robe, kneading Naruto's asscheeks. Naruto moaned in pleasure.

"I want you," Sasuke panted into Naruto's ear. His voice was raw demand. "I want to… I want to wake you up…"

Somehow, between gasping, breathless kisses, they managed to tear off each other's clothes, and then Naruto was pressing down on Sasuke's naked body, his lithe bony frame, his smooth sweet skin like silk. He raked Sasuke's tangled black hair with his fingers. He buried his kisses in the hollow of Sasuke's throat and the curves of his neck. Sasuke made a whimpering sound, and the length of his hard erect penis jerked against Naruto's own. It was hot as a furnace, slick with stickiness. "Ngh!" Naruto gasped. He could not resist thrusting against Sasuke's stomach, driving his dick into that sweet flesh. He felt himself about to orgasm. "Sasuke!" he screamed.

"Ungh!" Sasuke groaned, head arching back. "Wait—"

And suddenly the other boy twisted his body, unexpectedly strong, and pushed Naruto over on his back. Naruto struggled, his pelvis thrusting upwards, but Sasuke held him down and pulled away. Naruto could see his naked erection quivering in the cool moonlight. It was engorged red with blood, glistening wet with precum. It was so hard. So hard. "Sasuke, _please_," Naruto cried out.

"Wait," Sasuke gasped, panting. "Not yet… I… I didn't wake ya up yet…"

"Do it," Naruto begged. "Please, _please_."

Sasuke went to work. He kissed Naruto's bare chest, bit and sucked at Naruto's small, hard nipples. Then he moved lower, kissing the boy's flat stomach, down and down, until his hands grabbed the boy's dark wrinkled scrotum, and he took Naruto's slender little dick into his mouth. The boy moaned, back pressing into the soft grass. Waves of hot pleasure shot through his groin. "Sasuke," he breathed. "Sasuke!"

Sasuke lunged down, swallowing Naruto's dick all the way to the base, then sucked his way back up the shaft, his lips wet and tight like a vise, his tongue snaking, licking. At the same time he squeezed Naruto's ballsack, fondling it with expert fingers. Naruto screamed. The taste of Sasuke's mouth on his cock was like burning fire. Again and again Sasuke went down on him, head pumping furiously. Naruto moaned, shivered in ecstasy. He closed his eyes. When he opened them again the moon was above him, round and white like a huge dead eye, and he was about to cum.

"Sasuke!" he screamed, back arching, fingers digging into the grass for purchase. "Sasuke, ugh, I can't—gonna—"

Sasuke raised his head at the last moment.

"Uh—uh—uhhhh!" Naruto groaned, clenching his groin, trying desperately to stop the orgasm. His cock jerked, spasmed a few times, but no cum came out. "Uh!" he cried out.

"Awake yet?" Sasuke asked. His full red lips smirked, as if to withhold some sort of secret. "Cuz that was just a warm up."

"You little shit," Naruto gasped, beyond reason or sense. "I'll fuck you bloody." He leaped at Sasuke, throwing the other boy down on his back.

Sasuke parted his slender bony legs, raised his thighs to either side. The crack of his open asshole stuck up to the sky. "Oh _yes_," he whispered, "oh, I want you, Naruto, I want you in me…" The boy slid his hands around Naruto's cock and guided him to the opening. "Take me, Naruto, yes, take me, take me and _wake up_…"

Naruto stared into Sasuke's glittering green eyes. He could feel the boy beneath him, smell him, his skin slick with sweat, his dark oiled naked body which made Naruto so hard it hurt. A mad lust fired his blood, a hunger stronger than anything else he had ever felt in his life. "Wait," he gasped with his last shred of sanity. "Just one last thing. Promise me."

"Anything," Sasuke moaned.

"Never try to fly again."

Sasuke laughed, light and ringing, like silver chimes. Then Naruto's penis was pressing into Sasuke's anus, straining forward, and as he did so Sasuke's ass muscles clenched, the sphincter and the rectal canal all contracting at once, tight wet tissue squeezing on Naruto's dick with unbearable heat. Both of them screamed.

"So tight!" Naruto cried. "Yes! Yes!"

"Deeper!" Sasuke begged. "Deeper, Naruto!" He wrapped his calves around Naruto's shoulders, strong as steel, dragging him closer. Naruto drove his penis forward like a spear into the boy's ass. Walls of suffocating moistness yielded before him, swallowed him. _So hot, so tight!_

"Sasuke!" he screamed. "Sasssuukkeee!" Every part of him was on fire. Sasuke's fingers slipped through his own. Their hands clasped together in the grass, Naruto raked finger holds in the dirt. His ass clenched, hips thrusting deeper, deeper. Then he was staring right into Sasuke's eyes, and he bent down and kissed him hard on the lips. "Gods!" he shouted. The heat of being inside Sasuke was unbearable. His cock was being squeezed to bursting. White spots swam across the boy's vision. "I want you! _Please_, I want you!"

Sasuke relaxed his muscles. Naruto gasped with the release, sliding himself back slowly, dragging his dick inside the moist rectum. Then suddenly he thrust forward again. Sasuke clenched his insides tightly. "Yes!" Sasuke moaned. "Yes! Naruto! Not so fast, oh, slow, yes, like that. There now, there now, yes! Harder now. _Yessss_!" Naruto slowed his thrusts, drew them out for deliberate effect. Again. Slide back, and thrust forward. Slide, and thrust. Again. Again.

The other boy gasped under him, grunting, his hips and ass and thighs bouncing in rhythm to Naruto's movements. His jade eyes fluttered, his rib bones pressed against his taut skin as he arched his back in ecstasy. His penis slapped like a stiff pink mast between their two bodies. "Naruto!" the boy cried out. "Naruto!"

"Sasuke!" Naruto screamed. He drove into Sasuke's ass, again and again. Slide and thrust. Slide, thrust. Slide, thrust, slide, thrust. He could not stop now. Faster and faster, speeding up, pounding, pounding and slamming into the other boy, shrieking with the pleasure of fucking the boy he wanted so much. _Gods, yes, this is it—_"Now," Naruto moaned, "Now! I'm—gonna—uuuggghhhh—" A wave of heat flooded down Naruto's body, crashing against the tip of his penis in an unbearable crescendo—_this is it—this moment—_the pressure was like a burning flood, he could not hold it back, his manhood was on fire, burning, burning, _burning_—

_This moment—forever…_

The two boys screamed each other's names. Naruto made one final, ultimate thrust. Then Naruto exploded. The orgasm was so powerful his vision shattered into shards of white light. He felt his cock jerking inside Sasuke. Waves of hot seed shot out, splattering deep into the rectal canal, dripping back down in little rivulets across his dick. The climax passed as quickly as it came, and then Naruto collapsed, gasping. His dick slid out of the other boy with a soft wet sound.

Sasuke had ejaculated as well, right after him, the semen spurting all over both of them, sandwiched between their naked bodies pressed together. Naruto lay on Sasuke limp, panting with exhaustion. His penis was still hard. So was Sasuke's.

"Did I wake you?" Sasuke whispered.

"I don't know," Naruto gasped. "I… I think you should try again. Try… try again all night."

The night was young, and they were young as well. In the open grass, beneath the moon, the two boys fucked each other. They kissed and touched and sucked. They groaned and shrieked and whispered sweet nothings. They did everything, all the positions and tricks they knew, until at last they were spent, and they lay down in the cool spring grass and held each other. Naruto rolled on his back and let Sasuke rest on top of him. The boy's tangled black hair brushed against Naruto's cheek, his half-stiff dick was warm against Naruto's thigh. "Don't leave me," Sasuke murmured.

"I promise," Naruto whispered back. He closed his eyes, reveling in the gentle breath of Sasuke's sinuous chest, in the deep sweet musk of sweat and dew and cum on Sasuke's smooth skin. Suddenly he clutched at the other boy with a desperate strength, as if to hold him safe forever in the shelter of his arms. _I could die now, happy_, Naruto thought, and for one long magic moment he was at peace.

"I love you," Sasuke whispered softly then.

The slaveboy shivered. "I love you, too."

* * *

><p>Next: <strong>CHAPTER SEVEN: "An Evening Demon"<strong>

**Author's Note:** This is a reply to bridmatt's review:

_1. **bridmatt: **"Your Sasuke is an interesting character. He's sexy in a naive way, like it's clear he's a whore and has the sexual confidence of a whore, but he's also somehow untainted. He opens up to Naruto so freely and whole-heartedly, like the cynicism and caution one would expect a child-prostitute to have has somehow completely passed him by. […] Naruto is also interesting in his own right. Terrible things have been done to him (like all the rapes he's had to endure and the beatings), and yet Naruto has rationalized it all - even romanticized his relationship with Itachi. It's interesting watching him slowly wake up, as Sasuke put it."_

You make a lot of very interesting comments about the characters. I think it's clear that Sasuke is *not* your average slave; no one else would dare to be as bold as he is. But I don't know if I would call him "naive" or "untainted". I think if you read what he says in Chapter 5 he knows exactly what it means to be a slave. At the same time you're right that somehow Sasuke has managed to go beyond that and to define himself in a way that's independent of the existing social structure.

Naruto is, I think, a more realistic depiction of what a slave would really be like than Sasuke. He's lived his whole life under the control of his master and it's all he knows. Abusive relationships are extremely hard to get out of even for adults; how much more so for little kids. And in some sense Naruto is actually proud to be a slave, specifically the Warlord's slave. As Itachi's favorite he de facto speaks for the Warlord and thus has a considerable amount of power over the Warlord's other lackeys. The only person he really has to answer to is Itachi. So he actually enjoys a *very* privileged position in society, somewhat like an imperial concubine or even wife. No surprise that Naruto ends up being this weird combination of submissive slave + huge ego. And Sasuke is the focal point where the two clash gainst each other. What happens next? Probably something painful and not good.

_2._**_ bridmatt:_** _"The conspiracies are interesting so far. What's up with the Kitsune? Do this Sasuke and Itachi have a connection? If so, what is it? (Itachi seems to be too old to be Sasuke's brother in this universe.) And what's up with Sasuke's hinted-at "secret past"?"_

You'll find out way more about the conspiracies starting with the next chapter. Everything in BIRTHRIGHT is slowly building toward the big reveal at the end, and that process really kicks off now.


	7. An Evening Demon

Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO or the characters in it.****  
><strong>**

**BIRTHRIGHT**

**CHAPTER SEVEN: "An Evening Demon"**

* * *

><p>When Naruto woke it was already past noon, and the sun filtered through the pine trees overhead like golden rice pouring through a strain, scattering bright drops in every direction.<p>

Sasuke was under him, his naked body warm and soft. A slight smile played on the sleeping boy's face, sweet and wicked all at once, and Naruto thought he had never seen anything more beautiful. _I love you_, he remembered. Sasuke had spoken of love, too, that day on Shinjukame Temple. He had sung of a wanderer seeking his true love from the holy land. Naruto had not understood. _Why would a slave whore sing of love?_

And then suddenly Naruto could only hear a different voice, a different memory. Uchiha Itachi was towering over him, his eyes as luminous as they were merciless. "You do not act as a slave should," he declared in a flat dead tone. "Or have you forgotten?" And the boy had pleaded, No, please, Master, I am your tool, I live only to serve you, _please_…

Master. The thought hit the boy with the force of an explosion.

He tumbled out from Sasuke's entangled limbs, gasping and struggling for breath. He wanted to retch. _Master. I betrayed Master Itachi_. He had done it again, and far worse than the last time. Not just a kiss, a whole night of sexual orgy. He was supposed to be looking for the Demon Fox, he was supposed to be protecting his master. Instead he had been fucking a whore. The shame and disgust coursed through the boy like a tidal wave, drowning him. Love? A mad lust, yes, some sort of demon seduction, but not love. Slaves did not love, Naruto knew. Slaves only served.

Naruto was so distraught that when he went to gather his clothes he could not even stand up. They had been scattered across the clearing, and to get them all he had to repeatedly crawl around the sleeping Sasuke. Naruto tried not to look at him. _I must never see that whore again_.

But as he was adjusting his robes and sliding his sword through his belt, on the way out of the clearing, somehow he stumbled, and there Sasuke was before him. The other boy had shifted position, so that his back and thighs and ass were pointed at Naruto. The naked skin was white as snow and tautly muscled. Naruto felt his dick begin to stiffen at the sight.

_No_. No, it must never happen again. The boy wrenched his gaze away and staggered from the clearing, as fast as he could manage. It was not very fast. The Godswood seemed to stretch beyond the end of the world, and Sawara was like an alien city, full of mazes and traps that he could not find the way out of, though he had lived there his whole life. By the time he climbed up the steps of the imperial palace it was getting dark.

One of the samurai on guard duty leered at him, an ugly stunted fellow with yellow teeth and a face like a piece of rotten cork. "Where you been, slaveboy?" he called. "Found the Demon Fox yet?"

"Fuck you," Naruto said, too tired for a witty retort.

The samurai's eyes bulged. "You dare?" He spat and drew his katana, pointing it at Naruto's chest. "You dare insult a samurai! By rights I could kill you for that, slaveboy." He turned to his fellow guards. "Or shall I make him suck my cock instead?"

The other samurai laughed uproariously. Ever since his failure to protect Admiral Hiashi, Naruto's status in the imperial pecking order had taken a crushing blow. The Warlord's anger at his slaveboy was well known, and the samurai were gleefully taking advantage of it. It was death for a slave to raise a hand against a higher caste, but suddenly Naruto was strongly tempted. _His face already has so many holes, another one won't hurt, will it?_

"You dummy," a voice piped up behind them. "Don't draw a sword if ya're not gonna use it."

Naruto turned in shock. It was Sasuke, running up the palace steps with some sort of cloth pack on his back. The boy smiled, mouth dimpling. The slaveseal on his forehead seemed to burn in the setting sun.

"What's this?" the cork-faced samurai sneered. "Another slave?"

"Ya got a problem with that? The Warlord don't. He sent Naruto to find me, 'cuz I can find the Demon Fox. We got to speak to the Warlord, now. Get out of our way… or else." Sasuke licked his lips, and when he turned to whisper in Naruto's ear his tongue crawled all along the rim of Naruto's earlobe. "Please, Naruto. Let me go with you. Don't leave me. You promised."

Naruto was dumbfounded, unable to speak. The samurai fared little better. "You… you dare!" the cork-face man sputtered. They were all watching Naruto, now, the samurai at the palace gates, the ones manning the walls, the ones in the watchtowers and in the courtyards. The great samurai of the Blood Country. They were afraid of him, he knew. He was only a slave, but his master was Uchiha Itachi.

And Sasuke? Sasuke was nobody, he was a whore, they would cut him to pieces for his insolence, and the Warlord would praise them for it.

The boy found his voice. "Fuck you," he said. "And move aside."

They obeyed. Naruto led Sasuke through the gates into the imperial palace, into a vast winding labyrinth of tight stone paths and tunneled passages. At every corner there was another checkpoint, another group of grim-faced samurai who let no one through without the proper papers. Security, already extensive, had tripled since Hyuuga Hiashi's assassination. The Demon Fox would find the Warlord a very different sort of target than the drunk admiral. Even Naruto had to produce his travel pass, though they all knew him, and many questions of Sasuke were asked.

At last they came to the gardens, at the very innermost center of the palace, an expanse of exquisitely cultivated flowers, trees, rocks, and tiny flowing streams that surrounded Birthright Keep. The red lacquered stone of the Keep shot up into the sky like an arrow, a grim solemn thing, rows of window slits spilling out light like a thousand yellow eyes. The throne room was on the ground floor of the Keep. Naruto knew his master was waiting.

But in the gardens, finally, there were no samurai guards. The two boys were alone, and Naruto could speak freely.

He whirled to push Sasuke up against a tree. Hard. "What the fuck are you doing?" he hissed.

Sasuke grinned. "Don't be mad, Naruto. I just wanted ta be close to ya. I missed you."

"If only I could say the same. This is the second time in one day I've saved your life, and you return the favor by trying to kill me instead. We know where the Kitsune is? _No we don't!_ Master Itachi does not suffer liars."

"I'm not lying."

"Then where is he?"

"In Sawara, silly." The boy shrugged, giggling. "I think."

Naruto wanted to tear his hair out. _Or choke the whore until his pretty white face turns black_. Instead he said, "You're as poor a thinker as you are a liar. I ought to let Master mount your head on a spike, only mine would certainly follow. Damnit, Sasuke. What am I do with you now?"

In the night Sasuke's eyes were like dark jade stones. "I don't know."

Naruto backed away, disgusted. _A few hours ago I swore to never see this whore again_. But that just another lie, another broken promise. Sasuke was like a cockroach in a field of shit; try as he might, Naruto could not get rid of him. "The kitchens are always in need of slave help. Might be I could find you a place… but I've got to speak to my master first. He's waiting for me. Do you understand? Just stay here. And, please, by all the gods, keep your mouth shut."

Sasuke grinned. "Even for a goodbye kiss? See ya soon, Naruto."

When the slaveboy entered Birthright Keep, the orgy had already begun. It was a writhing mass of moaning sweating human flesh, slavegirls and slaveboys and geishas and monks and samurai and nobles, the naked and the drunk and the drunk naked. Purple incense smoke swirled from a thousand candle stands. Painted slave servants offered cups of hot sake. Fat eunuchs in the corners blared out erotic music from willow tree flutes; they tried their best, but it was not quite loud enough to drown out the screams of the Warlord's orgasming guests.

_I wonder which of them will tire first, the flutes or the cocks?_ The orgy had been going on for some time, judging by the reek of accumulated semen. _The sweet smell of debauchery_. The boy could not complain; he stank of it himself. Only the Warlord Uchiha Itachi seemed above it all, sitting on his golden throne, long silver hair hanging down like icicles, cold eyes dissecting his subjects like so many wriggling swine.

And Lord Itachi was the swine herder. The Warlord ran the Blood Country on terribly strict and exacting standards, which is what made it so strong. But the baser spirits of human nature could be leashed for only so long. So every once in a while Lord Itachi would deign to grant his subjects a temporary vent of release. Most often, the vent would be a battlefield; but if there were no battles, he would give them orgies.

With some difficulty Naruto pushed through the masses of naked fucking people to the throne. "Master! I've located one of the Kitsune's hideouts." Kneeling, he explained the situation. "He or the other spies may return to the clearing. It is ripe for an ambush."

Uchiha Itachi shifted his head slightly, his face a mask of frozen iron. "Is that all?"

Minister Sougon Sawar chuckled beside the throne, red robes rustling. He was the only one in the Keep still wearing clothes, besides Naruto and the Warlord himself. "Too little and too late, Naruto," he said. "The Warlord expects you to bring him the Demon Fox's head. But you bring only words."

Naruto buried his head in the floor, thinking of Sasuke. "I'm sorry, Master. I will continue the hunt at once. May I have your leave to go?"

"Ah, but what's the rush?" a drunken voice laughed behind them. "The fun's just beginning." A very naked Namikaze Nyuka staggered into view, a slavegirl concubine dangling from his shoulder. "Lord Itachi! Oh, great Warlord of Blood! May this humble poet present you a gift." He waved his hand, and the slavegirl knelt on cue before the throne.

"Fascinating," the Minister of Coin observed. "A bloodline child."

Naruto cared nothing for any girls, but at Sawar's words his gaze whipped around, staring. And then he realized that the concubine was not human.

Not any human that Naruto had seen before, anyway. He hadn't noticed, at first; he'd thought she just had odd-looking dark skin. But now he saw it was not skin at all. _Scales_. Scales like a fish, rough and leathery and sharp to the touch. Like a shark.

"Very good, Sawar!" Namikaze Nyuka exclaimed. "A hideous little bloodline, isn't she? One of my slave ships acquired her during a raid just the other day. Comes from some island in the far east. A whole family of shark people, she claimed. Superstitious neighbors murdered her parents, and would done her in too, except… well, let's say some men have very strange tastes. Smile for me, honey."

The shark girl smiled. Her teeth were rows of daggers, a hundred jagged and pointed white arrowheads, wide enough to close on a man's head and swallow it. Naruto involuntarily recoiled at the sight, his stomach roiling. _Is this a bloodline child_?

Tales had circulated through the world for years, whispers of children with strange deformities, strange powers. A pair of twins in the Hiroi desert born with twisted hair made of glass. A girl in the Earth Country with a tongue in the palm of her hand. A boy in the central grasslands with blood the color of tree sap. And not alone, either: others of their kind, born to the same parents, to the same uncles and aunts. An entire family of inhuman monstrosities. Clans of cursed blood. _Bloodlines_.

"A mouth made for tearing things in two," said Minister Sawar. "What does the girl eat, I wonder?"

"She prefers raw meat, fish mostly. Though I feed her dick as well." Nyuka laughed, almost choking on his own drunken spittle. "Her blowjobs are most stimulating, I assure you. Would Lord Itachi care for a demonstration?"

Other drunken lords had gathered around them now, drawn to the spectacle like crows to a rotting carcass. Misain Dayu, Arashi's son and Rin's brother. Hyuuga Neji, the new leader of the Hyuuga clan. Hayate Inari, young scion of the Hayate clan. The Sabaku twins, rich silk merchants. And, of course, a large contingent of plump Zen monks, led by Maito Gai of Shinjukame Temple.

"Splendid!" Maito Gai shouted. "Splendid! Let her eat me first!" He ran toward the shark girl, his penis flopping up and down like a limp rope. When he swung it at the girl's mouth, it bounced off the teeth.

"An energetic offer, Gai-sama," Nyuka said. "But I fear not quite, ah, stiff enough. Anyone else?" The poet tittered. "Naruto! How about you?"

_Me?_ Naruto paled, coughing. He was no stranger to orgies, but this… he looked at the bloodline child. She smiled again, rows of sharp teeth glinting in the candlelight.

The nobles laughed uproariously. "Do you plan to make the poor boy an eunuch?" Sawar asked.

"Hardly." Nyuka smiled. "Well, so long as he remembers to hold very, very still."

That was one jape too much. "It seems you treat peckers the same as you treat poetry, Lord Nyuka-dono," Naruto snapped. "Slicing them to pieces, and making the rest of us scream in pain."

Hayate Inari hooted, clapping his hands. "Careful, Nyuka! The boy has a sharper mouth than the shark girl."

"My little slave forgets himself," said Uchiha Itachi.

His master's voice was soft, but it cut through the air like a steel blade through a throat. Naruto looked up, shivering. The Warlord's green eyes flashed from beneath a scarred black face. "Naruto. You forget your place. Your dick is safe tonight, but perhaps I ought to chop off your tongue instead. Sometimes you remind me of my first Naruto. Speak like this again, I warn you, and you shall meet the same fate."

Naruto swallowed. The first Naruto, his master's childhood slave, had died during the Night of Blood, burned to a crisp in the remains of Uchiha Castle. _Not the finest namesake_. "I'm sorry, Master. Please. I live only to serve you."

"Good. Come here." As the Warlord spoke he opened his robe, spreading his thighs. Lord Itachi's penis stuck out between them, half-erect but already glistening red. He directed his gaze to the others. "And Nyuka, you shall show me this bloodline girl as well. Personally. "

"This humble poet is yours to command. Oh great Itachi, I will give you a sexual symphony to last the rest of your days!"

Namikaze Nyuka almost sounded like he was dancing, but Naruto could not see him any longer. The boy had fallen to his knees before the throne and was taking his master's dick into his mouth. It was warm and salty and rubbery, filling his throat, the taste as familiar as anything else the boy had ever known in his life. A thousand times before he had done it, ten thousand. Naruto closed his eyes.

Behind him, a more exotic kind of fellatio was evidently taking place, for Nyuka was screaming. His strangled cries seemed to be both pleasure and pain. "Yes!" the poet cried. "_Yesss_!"

"Blood is running down your thigh, Nyuka," Sawar observed dryly.

"That's the fun of it, my dear minister! Yes, honey, like that, oh yes, harder! _Harder_! _Yesss_! Inari-san! Join me, won't you?"

Just then Hayate Inari shrieked, a high-pitched squeal to rival that of any virgin girl. There was much clapping and laughing in the background.

Naruto's fingers were stroking his master's testicles and his mouth plunged down the master's shaft with every one, sucking, swallowing. But the Warlord paid his slaveboy little mind. Instead he said, "Do you see, Sawar? Even the skin of the girl's hand is sharp enough to draw blood."

"Yes, like barbed sandpaper. Her handjobs are as deadly as her teeth." There was another scream, this time from yet another noble. "And she is much stronger than a normal man. One wonders if the use of these bloodline creatures has been misaligned. Sex slaves are easy to come by... inhumanly powerful soldiers, much less so."

"I remember the first time I saw a bloodline child," said Uchiha Itachi. As the man spoke his erection grew hard as iron, a huge thick sword inside the boy's throat. "Many years ago, before the Night of Blood, when my first Naruto was still by my side. A willful slave, that one. Always rebellious. Defiant. One day, during my father's last campaign against the Senju, he ran away. Thinking he would go to the enemy, I suppose. I chased Naruto to a cave in the forest. Yet when I arrived I found the cave already surrounded with dead soldiers. Hundreds. Can you guess how they died, Sawar?"

"Teeth, my lord?"

"Bones. They had been impaled by spears of bone. Bones that grew from the ground. Bones tall as trees and strong as steel. And when I went inside the cave I saw the source of them all was a dead little girl. The bones stuck right out from her like a spiderweb. My Naruto was huddled next to the girl, crying. What happened? I asked him. She killed everyone, the boy replied. And you? I asked. And he said, she would have killed me too, except her heart stopped. Naruto never tried to run away again."

That was when the fire started.

The slaveboy could not see it, at first, but he could hear the screams. They were coming from outside the Keep, cries of confusion and panic. And beneath the screams, the soft cracking hiss of flames, of ashen paper and burning wood.

"The Demon Fox, Warlord!" a fearful voice shouted. Doors were bursting open, footsteps were striking on stone. "He is in the palace! _He's coming here!_"

For a moment Birthright Keep was as silent as a tomb. No music, no laughing, no words.

Then all at once everyone in the Keep began to scream, too, matching their voices to those outside in some kind of hideous animal chorus. And at the same moment they began to run. The bare feet of hundreds of suddenly sober people slapped the floor madly. "Lord Itachi, we must retreat!" shouted the monk Maito Gai.

For once Naruto agreed with the cowards. The boy pulled his mouth from his master's penis, tried to stand up, fumbling for his sword. "Master—"

But before he could say another word Uchiha Itachi grabbed his slaveboy by the hair, yanking him back. "Finish sucking, Naruto," said the man coldly, his eyes gleaming in the flames like emerald suns, his terrible scar as black and deep as the void at the end of the world. "I am not yet satisfied. No evening demon will interrupt me."

And even as the walls glowed with huge red flames and the air filled with the cries of desperate dying men, the Warlord Uchiha Itachi sat on his gleaming golden throne and clutched Naruto by the hair and made him finish. With every lunge of Naruto's mouth, every choking swallow of that huge rough cock, the screams came closer. "Oh, yes," the man whispered. "Oh, _yes_. An evening demon. Let him come to his fate."

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><p>Next: <strong>CHAPTER EIGHT: "Heart's End"<strong>

**Author's Note: **This is a response to some reviews:

_1._**_ Jen:_**_ "So I guess orgies are just another way to pass the time in that society. Jeeze. Besides Naruto (who is a slave, and therefore technically doesn't count), none of the people Itachi associates with are worthy of saving. They've all become corrupt and decadent. Or is that wrong? Are there people in Itachi's social circle who are decent leaders, and who the Demon Fox doesn't plan on killing?"_

Sougon Sawar is a highly competent functionary. Other than him, pretty much, no.

_2._**_ bridmatt:_**_ "It's interesting that the Naruto we know wasn't the first Naruto. What was his name before this? Does he even remember, or is he so brainwashed by Itachi that he's long forgotten it? And if Naruto lost his name, how is it that Sasuke kept his?"_

Naruto's mom probably gave him a name, but he definitely doesn't remember it. Itachi picked him out of a pile of corpses when he was less than two years old. And the name he has now-"Naruto"-was chosen by Itachi.

Sasuke kept his name because he was older when he was sold into slavery, and because he has a reason to remember it.


	8. Heart's End

Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO or the characters in it.****  
><strong>**

**BIRTHRIGHT**

**CHAPTER EIGHT: "Heart's End"**

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><p>When the Demon Fox came to the throne room at last, the Warlord was climaxing. He grunted as his seed spurted in hot waves into Naruto's mouth. Naruto swallowed it all, exhausted. Then his master pushed the boy aside, letting him tumble to his hands and knees at the foot of the throne.<p>

When Naruto looked up, the thick iron doors of Birthright Keep had been ripped to pieces, and the Kitsune was standing before them, a black-and-silver shadow against burning red flames.

"You," whispered the Kitsune. His voice was so soft beneath the mask that Naruto strained to hear, but there was something wild in it, something tormented. It sounded like the whimper of an animal caught in a hunter's trap.

"Me," agreed Uchiha Itachi.

The Lord of the Blood Country rose slowly from his throne, golden robes still hanging open. He did not bother to cover himself; the tip of his penis pointed out at the Demon Fox like a giant swollen finger. "It has been a long time, little fox." The man paused, cold eyes flicking over the ninja's body. "You were smaller thirteen years ago. And far less troublesome."

The ninja did not answer for a long moment. Then he said, "So you know."

"Know who you are? I suspected. A ninja with green eyes and silver hair. A ninja who covers his forehead with the banner of Senju Orochimaru. A ninja who wants me dead. And when I saw you… there could be no mistake." Every once in a very long while, Uchiha Itachi would actually threaten to smile; he never did, but the threat alone was terrible to behold. "Why, my dear little demon, you look just like me."

"I'm nothing like you!" the Kitsune suddenly burst out, screaming. "Nothing! You—you killed them! _You_ _killed them all, you murderer!_"

Naruto could not decide what was more surprising: that his master knew the Kitsune's identity, or that the Kitsune was, at a most inappropriate time, starting to cry. The ninja's chest actually shook up and down with wracking sobs, and he was wiping tears from his eyes with his hands.

Naruto laughed loudly. "Are you all right, Demon Fox? You seemed to have turned into a little girl. Or perhaps a pacifist? It is a strange world where an assassin accuses someone else of murder."

"Shut up!" the Kitsune screamed. "This has nothing to do with you!"

"On the contrary. I believe you still owe me your head." Naruto slid his sword from its scabbard as he spoke, the blade dazzling bright as it caught the firelight. A rush was in him, a storm in his blood that shouted out for revenge, for violence, for death. He could not remember why had ever been afraid of this sniveling, sobbing fool. As he licked his lips, his tongue had the taste of his master's semen on it, strong and dark and sticky. _I will wash it down with your blood, demon._

His master stayed him. "No, Naruto. Stay back. The Kitsune is mine."

"But—"

"Give me your sword, Naruto." Uchiha Itachi reached over and plucked the katana out of Naruto's hands. Then he turned his gaze back to regard the ninja. "Well, little fox. What are you waiting for? There are no guards; I sent them away. My slaveboy will not interfere. It is just the two of us tonight. You will never have a better opportunity to kill me. That is what you want, isn't it? Your heart's end."

The Kitsune's green eyes glittered, wet with tears. "Tell me _why_," he whispered.

"Why I killed them?" The Warlord shrugged. "Because I could."

There was an impossibly long silence. It stretched on and on, broken only by the hiss of flames, the cracking of roof timbers in the blistering heat, until Naruto half-thought the Keep would burn down before the fight began. But then all at once the Demon Fox moved, digging into a pouch at his waist. In the next instant a clutch of spinning shuriken came flying at the Warlord.

Naruto did not miss the little paper tags attached to the shuriken. "Exploding tags!" he shouted in warning, throwing himself to one side. The Warlord leaped up, above their path. The shuriken struck the golden throne, exploding, blowing the ancient seat of the Birthright Emperors into a dozen pieces of twisted metal.

Meanwhile Uchiha Itachi was high in the air, long silver hair flapping, open robes billowing behind him, his naked chiseled body like bronze in the firelight. The power of his leap had taken him across the room, right over the Kitsune. Naruto exulted; no one was as strong and fast as his master. No one could stand against him.

But the ninja's fingers were flashing together in a blur of patterns. "_Katon_!" he shouted.

A fireball erupted from his face, right at Itachi.

"Master!" Naruto screamed, too far away to help.

Itachi raised two fingers before him as if in prayer. "Suiton!" At once a great torrent of water materialized from nowhere, colliding with the fireball. There was a tremendous hissing sound, and a blast of steam poured out everywhere, filling the room.

For a second Naruto could not see anything. Everything was covered in a warm fog of white, thick as milk. "Master!" he screamed again. Somewhere near he could hear the scrape of steel against steel, the ringing clash of blades. He wanted to help, but he had no weapon, and there was a pit in his stomach besides, a realization that chilled his bones._ Master can use magic. He kept it a secret from me_.

There was a scream, young and pained, followed by a dull thud against the far wall. The Kitsune. Naruto could see him now, through the fading steam. The ninja was on one knee. Blood was running from deep cuts in his chest and shoulder, and when he raised his head, his spiky silver hair was matted with ashes. "Damnit," he grunted.

"Foolish little fox," said the Warlord. The man's sword was dripping red, and his erect penis was dripping translucent white. "You are scarcely a match for my slaveboy. How can you hope to have a chance against me?"

The Kitsune ran at Itachi, screaming. Itachi turned aside the Kitsune's kunai with the flat of his blade and then whipped him in the head with his elbow. The blow knocked the ninja into the remains of the golden throne, so hard that he made a dent in the metal. The Kitsune tried to get up, but slipped. Only on the third try did he manage to stagger up. "No," the Kitsune cried out. "I won't lose! I—I waited so long—"

"I told you to run, boy. You have returned to your death." The Warlord flung his katana away, back to Naruto. "I do not need that anymore." Ever so deliberately, he began to walk toward the ninja.

"_Die_!" the Kitsune screamed. Once more he ran at Itachi.

Itachi kicked him in the groin. The ninja went down, shrieking and writhing. The Warlord was before him, a bronze giant towering over a slender, broken child. He picked up the Kitsune with his bare hands and slammed him against the ground. There was a sickening crunch as the stone floor cracked. "No!" the ninja gasped. Then Itachi picked him up and slammed him down again.

The Demon Fox did not move. He lay limp upon the floor, limbs sprawled to either side, shock of silver hair stained with blood. The Warlord's long fine locks hung down over the defeated ninja like a waterfall of ice. _They have the same color hair_, Naruto thought, though he did not know why.

"You crushed him, Master," the boy said. He walked over to Itachi's side, looking down at the broken assassin. "He's still breathing. May I do the honors? After all, I seem to have promised to present you the Kitsune's head."

"Very well, Naruto."

Naruto grinned and brought his sword up for the killing stroke.

And in the same instant there was a cracking sound behind them, a whistling hum the boy had heard a thousand times before.

_A crossbow!_

He twisted just in time, as one of the crossbow bolts grazed his ribs and stabbed into the far wall. The Warlord caught the other bolt in his hand. Unexpectedly, there was an explosive tag attached to it; when the Warlord tried to throw the bolt away it blew up, knocking them both hard to the ground.

Naruto coughed, black spots blanketing his vision, stumbling to his knees. _Fuck! _There was another crack. Desperately Naruto wrenched himself back; this time the bolt grazed his ear. "Traitor!" the Warlord said from somewhere.

"For the Sage of Six Paths!" a man shouted in return. His voice was familiar, but Naruto could not place it. Then he looked up and he realized it was the drunk poet, Namikaze Nyuka.

The poet did not seem so drunk now. He fired another bolt from his crossbow, another and another, and every one was deadly accurate. "Kitsune!" he cried. "Run, we'll hold them off!"

That was when Naruto noticed the Demon Fox was staggering out of the doorway. _Fuck!_ he thought again. Elsewhere, somehow, Uchiha Itachi had wrapped his hand around Nyuka's throat. "You shall die for this," the Warlord declared. "Your entire clan shall—"

He would have said more, but just then he was attacked by a girl holding a giant axe. It was the slavegirl from the orgy, the bloodline child. She was unbelievably strong; as she swung the axe down, the stone block beneath split in two. "For the Sage!" she hissed in a voice as rough as her sandpaper skin.

Leaving his master to deal with the traitors, Naruto went after the Kitsune, stumbling through the doors of the Keep into the gardens outside. "You won't escape, demon!" he shouted.

The ninja did not answer. He ran instead, doing his best to prove Naruto a liar. The Kitsune was hurt, and not as fast as before, but he could still do magic. The slaveboy discovered that when the ninja ran straight up the side of a wall and down the other side. Naruto could not jump so high and was forced to find a slower way around. When he saw the Kitsune again, he feared it might be a smoke illusion, until he noticed the puddles of trailing blood. Ahead there was a high tower, untouched amid burning smoke, and a phalanx of samurai guards. "The Kitsune!" Naruto shouted to them. "Stop him!"

They ignored him, and after he came closer he saw why. The samurai were surrounded by enemies, men holding spears, and kitchen knives, and torches. In the forehead of every one was branded a black mark, the seal of the Blood Country. _Slaves_. The slaves were rising up… they were killing their masters, they were setting the entire imperial palace on fire. The sky was red with a swarm of burning cinders. Naruto would have been shocked if he had not been so intent on the chase before him. The Kitsune was just in front of him, so close Naruto could touch the ninja's shadow.

Then the Kitsune stumbled, clutching his side, and Naruto was on him. Naruto's first cut was parried, but his second sliced halfway down the ninja's forearm. The Kitsune fell back, almost losing his balance. "Damnit," he gasped.

Naruto laughed. "The taste of my blade seems not to agree with you."

"Shut up!" the Kitsune shouted. "You don't know anything, Naruto!"

"How odd. This know-nothing is about to kill you."

He attacked again, his katana a whirling storm, battering the ninja with a tornado of steel. Somehow the Kitsune held his ground, and then countered, his twin kunai stabbing, slashing, driving Naruto backward. The ninja suddenly seemed like a man possessed. "You're such a good little slave!" he shouted. "Why? He took your freedom. He beats you, he hurts you! Why do you follow him? _Why him_?"

Something had changed in the Kitsune's voice. The feral growl was gone, and in its place was something light, ringing. Something that made Naruto hesitate. "He is my master," he said.

"But you don't love him!"

Naruto's eyes widened. For an instant he was so astonished he could not move. And in that moment the Demon Fox turned, ran, and jumped off the side of the palace.

_Shit!_ The boy made to pursue, but skidded to a stop at the edge of the battlement walls. They were on the south side of the High District, facing the sea, and beyond the palace there was a sheer vertical drop, at least three hundred yards. Nothing lay below but hard, tiled rooftops. _If I jump I'll break every bone in my back_.

Regrettably, the Kitsune had not jumped; he was running down the wall instead, feet sticking to the stones with magic, a flying black shadow. "Kitsune!" Naruto yelled. There was no answer.

Naruto thought of his promise to bring back the ninja's head. He thought of his master's scarred face, cold and dead and merciless. And he thought of Sasuke, Sasuke whispering in his ear, begging him not to leave. Jumping off the wall was likely death, but if he had learned one thing from Uchiha Itachi, it was that there were far worse fates than death. If he let the Kitsune escape again, he would wish he had never lived.

The slaveboy jumped.

Like a screeching beast the wind rose up to meet him, a pounding near as loud as his own beating heart. The stones of the palace flashed by in a blur. His eyes were burning, they were ablaze with blood. He could see the Kitsune below, on the rooftops, a pinprick that became a black silver giant. "_Kitsune!_" the boy screamed with his last, desperate breath, and brought his sword down.

The ninja looked up.

"You idiot!" he shouted, and leaped in the air right at Naruto. Naruto had expected the ninja to dodge, not to fly at him, and his katana slashed at empty space. There was a crunch as their bodies collided, and then Naruto's momentum carried them both downwards, through the roof and then hard against a wooden floor. Naruto rolled and tumbled violently until at last he struck a stone statue, his head slamming the marble so hard it cracked. He groaned, utterly stunned. His vision was a black haze. Everything was going cold, and he knew he had only a moment of consciousness left.

Something was on top of him. It was heavy and warm, and when he shook his head, he saw it was the Kitsune. Glittering eyes stared down into his own, large and gleaming like a cat's, as green as jade. "Did I return the favor now, Naruto?" the Kitsune whispered. Naruto didn't understand. What favor had he ever given the Kitsune? But there was something wrong. _Something…_ _those eyes…_ The ninja giggled. "You made me promise not to fly, but you don't take your own advice."

Naruto was blacking out, but he had to see. With his last strength he pulled at the Kitsune's mask, and the cloth tore. And then he saw the Kitsune's true face.

_Bloody hell, I've been fucking the Demon Fox_, Naruto had just time enough to think. Then the darkness took him.

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><p>Next: <strong>CHAPTER NINE: "The Master's Shadow"<strong>

**Author's Note:** This is a reply to Jen's review:

_**Jen:** "'Heart's end' in more ways than one, I think. Sasuke's "heart's end" was to see Itachi dead, but... it also represents an end to Naruto's previous relationship with Itachi. This whole time, Naruto thought he was Itachi's trust right hand man, but it turns out Itachi had been keeping A LOT of secrets from him. Not only the fact that he could do magic, but also that he knew the true identity of the Demon Fox this whole time. Why keep some of his knowledge about the Demon Fox a secret? Was he intentionally sending Naruto out on a fool's errand, one he knew he'd never complete? (Because of Sasuke's abilities, Itachi could have assumed Naruto wouldn't be able to kill him.) Or one he hoped he'd never complete? (Maybe getting Sasuke to kill off some of the local nobility benefits Itachi in some way?)"_

Very interesting analysis. Though let me clarify some of your comments.

Itachi keeps a lot of secrets, but the Kitsune was not one of them. He didn't know that Sasuke was the Kitsune, he only guessed. And he definitely did not want his admirals and generals assassinated! The reason he sent Naruto to kill the Kitsune is because Naruto is the strongest fighter in Sawara, outside of Itachi himself. Itachi actually thinks very highly of Naruto's abilities-that's why he was so disappointed when he failed. Arguably Naruto was just unlucky in both his fights with Sasuke... I think the two of them are pretty evenly matched, at least in close combat.

Thanks so much for the review!


	9. The Master's Shadow

**BIRTHRIGHT**

**CHAPTER NINE: "The Master's Shadow"**

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><p>The boy dreamed, as he so often did, of his master.<p>

Everything was in darkness, everything was cold and sticky and stank of death. The boy could not breathe, the heap of corpses was suffocating him. He screamed. Then all at once strong hands grabbed him by the waist. He felt himself being lifted. Dazzling white light erupted everywhere, stinging his eyes.

"_Shhh_," his master whispered. His voice was iron, and the boy yielded before it. "_Don't cry_."

Other voices bubbled around them, a droning the boy could not make out. A dark shape came over him, dimming the light, and he saw it was the face of a man. There was a scar, all over his forehead, charred and terrible. But the darkness comforted the boy. The sudden light was too much, and the master's shadow made him feel safe. "_Strong boy. Clinging to life_," his master said as he cradled him. The words echoed, piercing him to the heart, to the most hidden places. "_I shall keep you… as my slave…_"

When the boy woke, the wind was whispering.

Naruto groaned, feeling the ache in his back and his chest and limbs. His every muscle was sore, and his head pounded something fierce. Only as he staggered to his feet did he realize it was not the wind he was hearing, but a song.

He recognized it.

The other boy was leaning against the ruins of a stone wall. His eyes were closed and it almost seemed like he was sleeping, except that his mouth moved, and music came out.

_As ye came from the holy land  
>Of Shinjukame,<br>Met you not with my true love  
>By the way as you came?<em>

_How should I know your true love  
>That have met many anon<br>As I came from the holy land,  
>That have come, that have gone?<em>

_But, sir, true love is a durable fire,  
>In the mind ever burning,<br>Never sick, never dead, never cold,  
>From itself never turning.<em>

_I tell ye, love is a careless child,  
>And forgets promise past,<br>He is blind, he is deaf when he list,  
>And in faith never fast.<em>

_Know my true love hath my heart  
>And I have his own,<br>But what conscience has love,  
>Which is too young to know?<em>

For a moment, in thrall to that innocent, near childlike voice, Naruto was not sure whether he was awake or asleep, whether last night had been reality or a dream.

But then the other boy turned, silver hair whipping in the breeze, and Naruto stared into Sasuke's eyes, glittering green like a cat's.

No. No, not like a cat. _Like a bloody fox._

"Watcha' looking at?" Sasuke asked, smirking. "Don't ya like my new hairstyle?"

"No."

"Too bad. It's my real color, ya'know. I dyed my hair black."

"You—you…" Naruto trailed off, at a loss. What could he say? He went to grab his sword instead, sure that cold steel would make him feel better. It was not there.

Sasuke giggled. "Still tryin' to cut off my head? How silly."

"You… you used me!" Naruto blurted out. Even he did not where the words were coming from. "You said you loved me! You goddamn liar! You only wanted to get into the palace! I was just your whore!"

The other boy looked surprised. "It's not like that."

"You didn't care at all!"

"Naruto…" Sasuke jumped to his feet and started walking toward him. "Naruto, listen. If I was only using you, I would've let ya split your back open when you tried to fly. Look at me."

Naruto did not want to look, but by then Sasuke was far too close. He was still wearing his ninja garb, but stripped to the waist; bloody bandages covered his upper body and neck and forehead. Where they did not, nasty bruises poked out. It occurred to Naruto he ought to have bruises, too, and when he felt under his kimono he was startled to touch soft bandages instead.

"That's what I get for savin' you," Sasuke continued. "A couple of busted ribs and more bruises than I can count. Okay?" Sasuke was right next to him now, close enough he could feel Sasuke's breath on his lips. He slowly slid his arms around Naruto. "Please, Naruto. I love you."

_And I love you_. Naruto had said that, not two nights ago. But that had been to the slave whore Sasuke, to a stupid, harmless, innocent boy. Not to the Demon Fox. "You're a spy!" he said, trying to push the ninja away. "An assassin. A heretic."

"Guilty as charged." Sasuke's tone was mocking, his smirk insolent and wicked. His eyes flashed beneath silvery shadows. "What'll it be, then, slaveboy? Will ya kill me? Or make love to me?"

Sasuke kissed him. Naruto wrenched himself free. "No. Stop."

The other boy ignored him. His tongue licked Naruto's cheek and down his neck. His long fingers raked Naruto's shoulders. "Stop!" Naruto gasped again. Sasuke was strong, but so was he, and he did not have a gigantic wound across his chest. _I should let the Kitsune kiss me, and while he does, I'll snap his neck_.

The thought was left hanging when Sasuke pushed him to the ground and Naruto's body betrayed him. All notions of murder vanished as Sasuke pressed into him, groaning and squirming, his erect dick driving into Naruto's own. Both of them were too far gone, too injured, to do much of anything, but somehow they managed to pull off each other's loincloths. Sasuke wrapped his arms around Naruto's chest, and thrust himself violently against Naruto's stomach. Their naked penises rubbed together, hard and hot and tight. Sasuke screamed. "Yes!" Naruto gasped. His mind was on fire with pleasure. "Yes, Sasuke, please!"

"Naruto!" Sasuke moaned.

It was over far too quickly. Naruto arched his back, groaning, thrusting upward, and then his dick jerked and spurts of semen squirted out. Sasuke came a few moments later. They lay there for a while, panting, savoring the sensation of their cum mixing together between them. Finally Sasuke grunted, and rolled off to lie in the dry grass.

Some sort of red stain was leaking into the grass beneath Sasuke. Naruto did not understand, until he realized it was blood. Sasuke's wounds had been reopened by exertion of the sex; the Kitsune was more hurt than he looked. _I should kill him_.

Instead the boy turned away, to stare at other things. For the first time he noticed where they were. Great slabs of crumbling stone loomed above them like melted fingers, broken towers and collapsed roofs and buried statues, choked all over with vines and moss. Below them, sloping down from the stone ruins, was an empty rocky shore, and the Endless Sea beyond. A breeze blew from the sea, sharp and silent. Naruto felt a lonely chill pass over him, and a yearning for human warmth.

"This is Uchiha Castle," he said.

"Yeah," said Sasuke. He sat up, craning his head to stare at the cloudless blue sky. "What do ya know 'bout it?"

What did he know? For centuries Uchiha Castle had been the ancestral fortress of the Uchiha clan, first as the all-powerful Shoguns to the Birthright Emperors, and then as Warlords in their own right. It was burned down in the Night of Blood, when Orochimaru the Butcher, under pretense of a wedding to Uchiha Sakura, massacred the entire Uchiha clan. Itachi, the only survivor, abandoned the castle, deciding to make his seat of power in the old imperial palace instead. Henceforth the castle and its surrounding ruins were informally known as the Haunted City. And so it had been for thirteen years.

But he did not say that. "It strikes me that I should be the one asking questions, not you."

Sasuke nodded. "You want to know about me. About the attack last night. About your master. I'll tell ya, Naruto. Everything. That's why I brought you here. But I've got to start at the beginning. It's gonna take time."

"Then don't waste it. Go on."

"Just remember one thing." Sasuke's eyes gleamed, and then they were not his eyes, but those of the Kitsune, feral and anguished. "This isn't my story. This is the story of my brother."

Naruto felt a sudden chill run down his spine. "Your brother?"

"Yes. My brother… Uchiha Itachi…"

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><p>Next: <strong>THE SLAVE'S TALE: "Sins of Blood, Part One"<strong>

**Author's Note: **My reply to G's review:

_**G: **"Sasuke is singing again, and the same song that he did before... Who is the song about? Someone in the past?"_

It's just a folk song that Sasuke learned when he in the South (across the sea). Boring explanation-sorry to disappoint you :P. I put it in the story because I like the idea of singing Sasuke and I needed him to sing something. If ya want to know more about the song, it's actually based off the IRL poem "As You Came from the Holy Land" by Sir Walter Raleigh. The theme of the poem is very fitting for this story.


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